Publications


"The Need for Speed: The Impact of Capital Constraints on Strategic Misconduct." Management Science 72.2 (2026): 1680-1698.

I examine the impact of capital constraints on strategic misconduct and firm performance in minibus taxi industry in South Africa. I find that lower capital constraints lead to less strategic misconduct and increased firm performance. My findings suggest that these measures might be important for understanding how firms respond to capital constraints and their impact on public welfare.



The Perils of a Soft Start: Initial Conditions, Early Strategy Selection, and Small Firm Performance Strategic Management Journal 46.9 (2025): 2113-2165.

I investigate the impact of early strategy selection on firm performance in the minibus taxi industry in South Africa. I find that firms that experience lower than anticipated fuel prices in the first three months of operation drive less and work fewer days. These patterns persist long after the founding months and lead to worse firm performance. My findings suggest that early imprinting influences strategy selection and firm performance amongst small firms in emerging markets. 



“Corporate Engagement in the Political Process and Democratic Ideals” Political Economy and Justice ed. Danielle Allen, Yochai Benkler, and Rebecca Henderson. University of Chicago Press. 2022.

Reviewing literature on corporate governance and deliberative democracy, this paper argues that existing theories for corporate engagement in public processes insufficiently account for corporate capture and offers potential remedies.

Working papers


"Reallocation under Rationing: Evidence from Electricity Outages in South Africa" (with Rowan Clarke, Zachary Kuloszewski, and Jun Wong). April 2026 (under review)

Rationing policies are often designed with equity considerations in mind, yet whether equalizing exposure delivers equal economic impacts remains underexplored. We study electricity outages in South Africa, where rationing equalizes exposure across locations. Combining high frequency outage data with geocoded transactions from over 11,000 firms from 2021 to 2023, we show that equal exposure does not imply equal impact. Average sales remain unchanged, but outages induce reallocation: below-median firms lose roughly 11 percent of average revenue, while above-median firms gain 10 percent. We provide novel evidence that consumer substitution drives these effects and that advance notice amplifies disparities.


"Team Gender Composition and Firm Performance: Experimental Evidence from Solar Entrepreneurs in Rwanda." (with Rowan Clarke, Manuel Barron, and Martine Visser). April 2026 (under review)

How does team gender composition affect small technology-enabled firms in the Global South? We randomize 270 village-level solar enterprises in rural Rwanda to all-male, all-female, or mixed-gender four-person teams. Over 18 months, mixed-gender teams underperform all-male teams by 40% and all-female teams underperform by 24%. Minute-level GSM timestamps show mixed teams generate fewer recharges during evening peak-demand hours; all-female teams exhibit no peak-hour coordination deficit. Despite lower revenues, children in all-female teams' households study 74 additional minutes weekly. Heterogeneity's performance cost hinges on coordinating around asymmetric constraints—especially in small firms in the Global South.


"Growth of Small Firm in Emerging Markets" April 2026 (under review)

Why do small firms in emerging markets struggle to turn short-run profitability into sustained growth? Existing research emphasizes either constraints, such as limited capital, skills, and market access, or agency, showing that entrepreneurs adapt strategically despite these barriers. Both views miss how institutions shape whether strategic gains accumulate over time. Using rich administrative and qualitative data from South Africa’s minibus taxi industry, I show that the sector is dynamic, growth is fragile, shocks are recurrent, and recovery is difficult. The paper develops a framework linking performance to strategy, shock exposure, recovery capacity, and survival thresholds.


"The Cost of Flexibility: Informal Governance and Resilience in the Minibus Taxi Industry in South Africa" (with Rakeen Tanvir) December 2025 (under review)

How does the management of informal institutions shape small firm performance in emerging markets? This study examines South Africa’s minibus taxi industry, where route allocation is a central governance practice. Using administrative loan records, high-frequency GPS data, and granular weather shocks, we show that organizational flexibility increases vehicle utilization and improves repayment performance. Yet flexibility does not fully protect firms when severe shocks occur. Qualitative evidence shows that political frictions and administrative constraints limit flexibility and unevenly distribute its benefits, highlighting both the promise and limits of informal institutional governance.


"Working it out: Randomized Restructuring and Entrepreneurial Effort in a Collateralized Debt Market" (with Apoorv Gupta, Filippo Mezzanotti, and Jonathan Zinman). October 2025 (under review)

We examine how liquidity constraints and moral hazard shape borrower responses to modifications, and their implications for contracting, using an RCT on vehicle-collateralized debt, unusually rich administrative data on entrepreneurial effort, and an enriched workhorse model. We find debt reduction does not improve repayment performance or effort for liquidity constrained borrowers, payment reduction generate improvements for borrowers with sufficient equity in their vehicle, and payment reduction induces payment increases before effort increases.


"The Tradeoffs of Communicating Entrepreneurial Strategy" (with Nataliya Langburd Wright). August 2025 (R&R at Strategic Management Journal)

What tradeoffs do startup founders face in deciding whether to communicate their strategy to employees? We tested the effects of strategy communication through two field experiments and follow-up interviews with nearly 600 employees and executives in 24 growth-oriented ventures across 14 countries. Communicating firm strategy increased employees' idea differentiation from other companies. Yet many founders refrain from communicating strategy. Interviews reveal three underlying reasons: underestimating communication frictions, limited managerial attention, and a desire to preserve flexibility. 

"Market Segmentation in Informal Public Transportation: Evidence from Johannesburg's Minibus Taxi Networks" (with Oluchi Mbonu). October 2024. 

We study the market for public transportation in Johannesburg, South Africa, where private associations of minibus owners segment the city into distinct territories. We study the frictions that associations face on these "between-territory" routes. Using GPS traces for over 40 million minibus trips and 9 million commuter trips, we show that the supply elasticity is close to 1 on routes contained within an association’s territory but is significantly lower on between-territory routes (0.4) significantly increasing wait times for passengers. We also show that associations prioritize between-territory routes, indicating that they are more profitable.