Willa Friedman

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Here is my CV

I am an associate professor of economics at the University of Houston and a fellow at the Office of Evaluation Sciences. I study development economics with interests in health, education, political economy, and behavioral economics, and a regional focus on Sub-Saharan Africa.

Working Papers

When Information is Not Enough: Evidence from a Centralized School Choice System,” with Kehinde Ajayi and Adrienne Lucas.

Making Contact: Worker Assignment and National Unity,” (with Guthrie Gray-Lobe and Michael Kremer)

“The Educational and Fertility Effects of Sibling Deaths,” with Marc Rockmore and Dhanu Thamarapani), revise and resubmit, Economic Development and Cultural Change.

“Institutional Births and Early Child Health: Evidence from Ghana’s Free Delivery Policy,” with Anthony Keats.

“Children’s identities and parents’ attitudes,” (with Jean Boblawende Kabore)

“Evolution of Cultural Attitudes and Sex of Children in West Africa,” (with Jean Boblawende Kabore)

Local Economic Conditions and Participation in the Rwandan Genocide,” Households in Conflict Network working paper No 160.

Publications and Forthcoming

Disruptions to Health Care Quality and Early Child Health Outcomes: Evidence from Health Worker Strikes in Kenya,” with Anthony Keats and Martin Kavao Mutua, accepted, Journal of Health Economics.

Can Nudging Overcome Procrastinating on Preventive Health Investments,” with Nicholas Wilson, Economics and Human Biology, (2022). (or preprint)

Measuring Family Planning Provider Bias: A Discrete Choice Experiment Among Burkinabe, Pakistani, and Tanzanian Providers” (with Maria Dieci, William Dow, Manisha Shah, Jessica Vandermark, Sarah Burgess, Sandra McCoy, and Zachary Wagner), Studies in Family Planning, (2021).

Antiretroviral Drug Access and Behavior Change,” Journal of Development Economics, 2018.

Corruption and Averting AIDS Deaths,” World Development, 2018.

The Importance of Information Targeting for School Choice,” with Kehinde Ajayi and Adrienne Lucas American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings, 2017.

Advertising for Demand Creation for Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision,” with Nicholas Wilson, Sasha Frade, and Dino Rech, JAIDS, 2016.

Education as Liberation?,” with Michael Kremer, Edward Miguel, Rebecca Thornton, Economica, 2016.

Can Mobile Phone Messages to Drug Sellers Improve Treatment of Childhood Diarrhea?: A Randomized Controlled Trial in Ghana,” with Minki Chatterji and Benjamin Woodman Health Policy and Planning, 2015.

Book Chapters

“Economics of Genocide in Rwanda,” in Economic Aspects of Genocides, Mass Atrocities, and Their Prevention, ed. Charles Anderton and Jurgen Brauer, Oxford University Press, 2016.

Teaching

Development Economics (PhD)

Behavioral Economics (undergraduate)

Intermediate Microeconomics (undergraduate)