• Trailer park economics;
• Estimation of infant mortality underreporting in middle income and developing countries;
• Migration and demographic change in the former USSR, accidental death and disability in middle-income countries;
• Modeling and estimating the long-run consequences of different types of violent conflict, using data from Bosnia and Herzegovina;
• Economic models of bride kidnapping in the Kyrgyz Republic and econometric estimation of the long-run consequences;
• Suburbanization and urban structural change in transition economies;
• Progression to and performance in Economics doctoral programs by minority students.

New Projects

• Trailer park economics: joint work with Caitlin Gorback (NY Fed) with collaboration from Reed Few (Duke) and Renan Cunha (Duke). Keep an eye on this space for book chapter drafts, data appendices, and seminar notes.
• Modeling and estimating the long-run consequences of different types of violent conflict, using data from Bosnia and Herzegovina: joint work with Harun Dogo (RAND), Peter Devine (US Navy), Sabina Nogo (UNC), Jordan Rahal (Duke), and Gracia Sierra (Duke).  Keep an eye on this space for book chapter drafts, data appendices, and seminar notes.
• Economic models of bride kidnapping in the Kyrgyz Republic and econometric estimation of the long-run consequences: with Bakhrom Mirkasimov (Humboldt Univ).
• Suburbanization and urban structural change in transition economies and Russian urbanization and changing spatial structure in the Soviet and post-Soviet eras:  joint work with Joshua Mendelsohn (Duke) and Kseniya Benderskaya (Harvard). Also see this Russian Urbanization lecture in Russian.
• Progression to and performance in Economics doctoral programs by minority students: joint work with Cecilia Rouse (Princeton). Paper(s) coming soon.

Selected Work

• “Uncertainty, insecurity, and emigration from Kazakhstan to Russia,” World Development 42(2), February 2013, pp. 44-66. (with Galina An).
• “Disability incidence and official health status transitions in Russia,” Economics & Human Biology 10(1), January 2012, pp. 74-88 (with Irina Merkuryeva).
• “Health Shocks and Compliance in Chile’s Defined-Contribution Pension Program,” May 2011 (working paper with Scott Lustig).
• “Age-Adjusted Disability Rates and Regional Effects in Russia,” Demographic Research 23 (27) October 2010 (with Aleksandr A. Andreev).
• “Global Infant Mortality: Correcting for Undercounting” World Development, 38 (4), April 2010 (with Rebecca Anthopolos).
• “W. Arthur Lewis in Retrospect,” Review of Black Political Economy, 34(4), December 2007 (with Terry-Ann L. Craigie).
• “Pension Reform in Central Asia: an Overview.” Ch. 9 in Masaaki Kuboniwa and Yoshiaki Nishimura, editors. Economics of Intergenerational Equity in Transition Economies. Tokyo: Maruzen Publishers, 2006 (with Ai-Gul S. Seitenova and Dina S. Urzhumova). (Hitotsubashi University PIE discussion paper no 260 version)
• “Fertility and Marriage in Kazakhstan’s Transition Period: Implications for Social Security Policy,” Ch. 13 in Masaaki Kuboniwa and Yoshiaki Nishimura, editors.Economics of Intergenerational Equity in Transition Economies. Tokyo: Maruzen Publishers, 2006 (with Ai-Gul S. Seitenova) (Hitotsubashi University PIE discussion paper no 261 version)
• “Mortality recovery and stabilization in Kazakhstan,” Economics and Human Biology, 3(1), March 2005 (with Dina S. Urzhumova); an earlier draft
• “The migration response to economic shock: lessons from Kazakhstan.” Journal of Comparative Economics, 33(1), March 2005 (with Erbolat N. Musabek, Ai-Gul S. Seitenova, and Dina S. Urzhumova).
• “Kazakhstan’s Pension System: Pressures for Change and Dramatic Reforms,”Hitotsubashi Journal of Economics, 45(2), December 2004 (with Ai-Gul S. Seitenova).
• “Economic Consequences of Demographic Change in the Former USSR: Social Transfers in the Kyrgyz Republic,” World Development, 32(11), November 2004 (with Sergey V. Paltsev).
• Cities Transformed: The Dynamics of Demographic Change in Developing Countries.Mark R. Montgomery, Richard Stren, Barney Cohen,and Holly Reed, editors. Committee on Population, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, National Research Council. Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2003. This is a report of the Panel on Urban Population Dynamics, of which I was a member; primary contribution: chapter 8 (with others: see pp. viii-ix).
• “Short-run Migration Responses of Men and Women during a Period of Economic Turmoil: Lessons from Kazakhstan.” Eurasian Geography and Economics, 44(3), 2003 (with Erbolat N. Musabek, Ai-Gul S. Seitenova, and Dina S. Urzhumova).
• “Speculative Price Bubbles in the Rice Market and the 1974 Bangladesh Famine,”Journal of Economic Development, 25(2), 2000 (with M. Quddus).
• “Urbanization in Transforming Economies,” In P. Cheshire and E. S. Mills, editors.Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, North-Holland, 1999 (with A.R. Morrison).
• “Demographic change in the former Soviet Union during the transition period.” World Development, 26(11), 1998 (with D.D. Hemley).
• “Pension burdens and labor force participation in Kazakhstan.” World Development, 26(11), 1998 (with D.S. Urzhumova).
• “Cohort-Specific Rural-Urban Migration in Africa,” Journal of African Economies, 5(2), 1996 (with C.D. Grewe).
• Beyond Urban Bias: African Cities in an Age of Structural Adjustment. Heinemann and James Currey, Ltd., 1994 (with A.R. Morrison and A.M. Hamer).
• “Observational equivalence in the modeling of African labor markets and urbanization,”World Development, 21(4), 1993 (with A.R. Morrison).
• Indian Urbanization and Economic Growth Since 1960. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992 (with J.G. Williamson and E.S. Mills).
• The Impact of Sanctions on South Africa. Investor Responsibility Research Center, 1990 (with T. Bell, H.A. Khan, and P. Pollard).