His current research is focused on the effect of providing basic financial access to people in developing countries, and has included evaluations of a program to provide savings accounts to micro-entrepreneurs and a program which allowed farmers to commit to save harvest income for future fertilizer investment. His research also includes studies which examine the effect that risk (particularly health risk) has on the decisions that people make, and the effect that access to risk-coping mechanisms such as savings accounts have on these decisions. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 2007.