Research

Book

Giving Aid Effectively: The Politics of Environmental Performance and Selectivity at Multilateral Development Banks, Oxford University Press, 2016.
Co-winner of the Don K. Price Award for the best article on science, technology, and environmental politics published in the previous three years (2017)

Articles

Transparency by Chinese Cities Reduces Pollution Violations and Improves Air Quality (With Mengdi Liu, Sarah Anderson and Bing Zhang).
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(14): e2406761122. [+replication]
Choosing to Protect: Public Support for Flood Defense Over Relocation in Climate Change Adaptation (With Jan Freihardt and Thomas Bernauer).
Environmental Research Letters, 2024, 19(10): 104012. [+replication]
Social Competition Drives Collective Action to Reduce Informal Waste Burning in Uganda (With Polycarp Komakech and Victoria Shiran Shen).
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(23): e2319712121. [+replication]
Winner of the Evan Ringquist Best Paper Award for the best article on science, technology, and environmental politics published in the previous two years (2025)
Does the Squeaky Wheel Get More Grease? The Direct and Indirect Effects of Citizen Participation on Environmental Governance in China (With Michael Greenstone, Guojun He, Mengdi Liu, Shaoda Wang, and Bing Zhang).
American Economic Review, 114(3): 815–850. [+replication]
The Limits of Awards for Anti-Corruption: Experimental and Ethnographic Evidence from Uganda (With Alex Bagago, Tanner Bangerter, Paul Bukuluki, and Brigham Daniels).
Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 2023, 43(4): 1079-1100. [+replication]
Citizen Monitoring of Waterways Decreases Pollution in China by Supporting Government Action and Oversight (With Bing Zhang and Patrick Hunnicutt).
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2021, 118(29): e2015175118. [+replication]
Adoption of Community Monitoring Improves Common Pool Resource Management Across Contexts (With Tara Slough, Daniel Rubenson, et al.).
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2021, 118(29): e2015367118. [+replication]
Individualized Text Messages about Public Services Fail to Sway Voters: Evidence from a Field Experiment on Ugandan Elections (With Ryan Jablonski, Daniel Nielson, and Paula Pickering).
Journal of Experimental Political Science, 2022, 9: 346-358. [+replication]
The Challenges of Using Citizen Reporting to Improve Public Services: A Field Experiment on Solid Waste Services in Uganda (With Patrick Hunnicutt and Polycarp Komakech). 
Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 2021, 31(1): 108-127. [+replication]
Combining Bottom-Up Monitoring and Top-Down Accountability: A Field Experiment on Managing Corruption in Uganda (With Brigham Daniels).
Research & Politics, 2020, 7(3), doi: 10.1177/2053168020934350. [+replication]
Testing Transparency (With Brigham Daniels and Tanner Bangerter). 
Northwestern University Law Review, 2020, 114(5): 1263-1334. [+replication]
Escaping the Disengagement Dilemma: Two Field Experiments on Motivating Citizens to Report on Public Services (With Daniel Nielson and Jacob Skaggs). 
British Journal of Political Science, 2021, 51(2): 685-705. [+replication]
Voter Information Campaigns and Political Accountability: Cumulative Findings from a Pre-Registered Meta-Analysis of Coordinated Trials (With Thad Dunning, et al.).
Science Advances, 2019, 5 (7): eaaw2612. [+replication]
Non-Governmental Monitoring of Local Governments Increases Compliance with Central Mandates: A National-Scale Field Experiment in China (With Sarah Anderson, Mengdi Liu and Bing Zhang). 
American Journal of Political Science, 2019, 63 (3): 626-643. [+replication]
Winner of the Evan Ringquist Best Paper Award for the best article on science, technology, and environmental politics published in the previous two years (2020)
SMS Texts on Corruption Help Ugandan Voters Hold Elected Councillors Accountable at the Polls (With Ryan Jablonski, Daniel Nielson, and Paula Pickering).
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2018, 115(26): 6668-6673. [+replication]
Can Information Outreach Increase Participation in Community-Driven Development? A Field Experiment near Bwindi National Park, Uganda (With Brigham Daniels and Colleen Devlin). 
World Development, 2018, 106: 407-421. [+replication]
Preferences for Domestic Action Over International Transfers in Global Climate Policy (With Lauren Prather). 
Journal of Experimental Political Science, 2018, 5(2): 73-87. [+replication]
Aiming at the Wrong Targets: The Difficulty of Improving Domestic Institutions with Development Aid (With Benjamin P. Buch and Bradley C. Parks).
International Studies Quarterly, 2017, 61(2): 471-488. [+replication]
Titling Community Land to Prevent Deforestation: An Evaluation of a Best-Case Program in Morona-Santiago, Ecuador (With Stuart E. Hamilton and Marco Millones).
Global Environmental Change, 2015, 33: 32-43. [+replication]
Encouraging Clean Energy Investment in Developing Countries: What Role for Aid? (With William A. Pizer). 
Climate Policy, 2015, 15(5): 543-564
Accountability in Global Governance: Civil Society Claims for Environmental Performance at the World Bank.
International Studies Quarterly, 2015, 59(1): 99-111 [+replication]
When Do Environmentally Focused Assistance Projects Achieve their Objectives? Evidence from World Bank Post-Project Evaluations (With Bradley C. Parks)
Global Environmental Politics, 2013, 13(2): 65-88. [+replication]
Does the Asian Development Bank Respond to Past Environmental Performance When Allocating Environmentally Risky Financing?
World Development, 2011, 39(3): 336-350. [+replication]
Human Use and Conservation Planning in Alpine Areas of Northwestern Yunnan, China (With Renée B. Mullen and James P. Lassoie)
Environment, Development, and Sustainability, 2007, 9(3): 305-324.

Working Papers

Conditionality and the Politics of Climate Change (With Michaël Aklin and Matto Mildenberger).
Training for Bureaucrats Improves Transparency in Public Procurement among Ugandan District Governments (With Alex Babago, Tanner Bangerter, Paul Bukuluki, and Brigham Daniels).
Acting Collectively Facilitates Long-Term Collective Action: Path Dependence in Mexican Communities’ Forest Management (With Cesar B. Martinez-Alvarez).
Floods and Fairness: How Politics Drives Unequal Exposure to Climate Change (With Matthew Barnett and Sara Hughes).