Research

Working papers

• Connecting the Unconnected: Facebook Access and Female Political Representation in Sub-Saharan Africa, with Sophie Hatte and Jordan Loper (latest version: September 2025)
  Revise and Resubmit, Journal of Political Economy
  [SSRN] [CEPR DP No. 20116] [VoxEU]
  
  Abstract

  Can social media help promote female access to political positions? Using data from 8,814 parliamentary races across 17 sub-Saharan African countries, we study this question in a context of persistent underrepresentation of women and rising Facebook penetration. Leveraging the staggered introduction of Facebook's Free Basics, i.e., free access to the platform via partner mobile operators, we find that its introduction significantly increases the election of female candidates, though only after one electoral cycle. The delayed effect reflects a gradual process: initially, male candidates endorsed by parliamentary parties experience declining electoral margins, followed in subsequent elections by greater endorsement and electoral success of female challengers. These dynamics suggest strategic learning by political parties, particularly in supporting first-time female candidates. To uncover mechanisms, we analyze how Free Basics access and social media usage influences political attitudes and social norms. We find that access to Free Basics fosters more egalitarian gender norms, especially regarding women in politics, reflected more strongly in online than offline environments. These changes are not simply a byproduct of broader political dissatisfaction or a generalized demand for political renewal. Importantly, the effect is strongest in contexts where access to Facebook connects users to more diverse online networks with greater female leadership representation.
  
  
• Partisan Media Ownership, News Content, and Policy Preferences
  with Mathieu Couttenier, Sophie Hatte and Stephanos Vlachos (latest version: July 2026)
  Submitted
  [SSRN] [CEPR DP No. 21735]
  
  Abstract

  We study how partisan newspaper ownership shapes news content, media demand, and policy preferences. Our setting is the 2010 takeover of the Basler Zeitung, a leading Swiss regional daily, by owners affiliated with the conservative Swiss People's Party (SVP), and its 2018 sale to a nonpartisan media group. We combine over three million articles from six German-language Swiss newspapers with municipality-level circulation data and outcomes from 160 federal referendums over twenty years. Using difference-in-differences designs that compare the Basler Zeitung to control group newspapers and exploit cross-municipality variation in pre-takeover penetration, we trace the effects of ownership along the full chain from content to readership and voting. Partisan ownership shifts coverage toward the SVP platform, especially before referendum votes and on party-sponsored proposals. Circulation declines by 28.8 percent during partisan ownership. Losses are largest in historically left-aligned municipalities, but exposure to the newspaper remains substantial even there. At mean pre-takeover penetration, partisan ownership increases SVP-aligned vote shares by 0.34 percentage points across all referendums, implying a persuasion rate of 14.6 percent among retained, persuadable readers, with larger effects for referendums closely tied to the party platform. Overall, ownership induces both ideological sorting in media demand and persuasion among voters who remain exposed, with political effects concentrated in local environments where SVP positions are more prevalent or less strongly opposed.
  
  
• Voting at the Dining Table: How Mail-in Ballots impact Couples’ Political Behavior
  [Draft coming soon]
  

Work in progress

• Printing Progress? Newspapers and Female Emancipation in Pre-Suffrage Britain
  with Andrea Tizzani

• Exposure to Informal Markets and Educational Choices: Evidence from Artisanal Mines
  with Mathieu Couttenier and Julia Hélie