Bio
I’m an economist, researcher, and educator. My research lies in the fields of political economy, development economics, and health, with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa. I primarily use original survey data collection and field experiments.
I am an assistant professor in Economics (tenure track) at CERGE-EI, a joint workplace of Charles University and the Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences. I received my PhD from Harvard University in 2024. More in my CV.
In my job market paper, I study supernatural beliefs about the cause of illness and their implications for medical decision-making in sub-Saharan Africa. I conducted a field experiment in the DR Congo to show that (1) supernatural beliefs about illness are extremely common (94% of respondents), (2) they are linked to health behavior through beliefs in the efficacy of modern medicine and stigma toward those with illness, but (3) a medical information intervention can causally shift beliefs and increase the uptake of modern medicine by 50%.
Working Papers
Supernatural Beliefs about Illness and Modern Medicine Use
In many societies around the world, people attribute illness to supernatural forces, including deities, spirits, and malevolent agents. Using observational data from sub-Saharan Africa and an original large-scale survey in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), I document the near-universality of supernatural beliefs about illness – 94% of respondents hold at least one such belief in the DRC – and their relevance for health behavior: They are linked to lower use of and beliefs in the effectiveness of modern medicine, and higher stigma toward those with illness. Then, I conduct a field experiment in the DRC to test whether these beliefs can change. I randomize showing an informational video about the biomedical cause and treatment of epilepsy, a prevalent disease commonly associated with supernatural forces. The intervention shifts respondents’ beliefs away from supernatural causes and toward modern medicine’s effectiveness, not only for epilepsy but also for other conditions. Moreover, the intervention reduces stigma toward those with the disease and increases take-up of free hospital consultations for epilepsy by 50%.
Publications
Graduate Student and Faculty Mental Health: Evidence from European Economics Departments
We study the mental health of graduate students and faculty at 14 Economics departments in Europe. Using clinically validated surveys sent out in the fall of 2021, we find that 34.7% of graduate students experience moderate to severe symptoms of depression or anxiety and 17.3% report suicidal or self-harm ideation in a two-week period. 19.2% of students with significant symptoms are in treatment. 15.8% of faculty members experience moderate to severe depression or anxiety symptoms, with prevalence higher among non-tenure track (42.9%) and tenure track (31.4%) faculty than tenured (9.6%) faculty. We estimate that the COVID-19 pandemic accounts for about 74% of the higher prevalence of depression symptoms and 30% of the higher prevalence of anxiety symptoms in our European sample relative to a 2017 U.S. sample of economics graduate students. We also document issues in the work environment, including a high incidence of sexual harassment, and make recommendations for improvement.
Is Religion an Inferior Good? Evidence from Fluctuations in Housing Wealth
The question of whether religious activities decline with economic development has been actively debated in sociology and economics for centuries. We address this question exploiting house price fluctuations in the U.S. in the early 2000s. We show that an increase in local house prices is associated with a decline in time spent on religious activities for homeowners relative to renters. This effect is not present for volunteering and civic activities. The main result is driven by a wealth effect, whereby activities that have an inferior-good component decline with housing wealth, and by a substitution effect whereby the attractiveness of activities linked to the residential asset increases during housing booms.
Work in Progress
The Impact of Access to Cities on Development: Experimental Evidence from the D.R. Congo
Throughout the world, cities are drivers of economic growth. They are hubs of innovation, entrepreneurship, and social change. Yet, the mechanisms through which the economic benefits of cities occur remain poorly understood because many social and economic forces change in tandem with urbanization. We study the randomized rollout of a program promoting urban access in rural villages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Implemented by a local NGO, this `City Access Program’ (CAP) provides regular weekly transportation by motorbike taxi to the city of Kananga to individuals living in rural villages surrounding the city. Our project seeks to provide causal evidence on the impacts of access to cities on economic behavior and wellbeing, gender norms, moral values such as preference for the in-group over the out-group, and psychological traits such as grit, self-control, and self-efficacy.
Markets and the Making of Modern `Sensibilities’? Experimental Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa
We seek to provide causal evidence on how markets shape values using an NGO program that promotes market access in rural villages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Implemented by a local NGO, this `City Access Program’ (CAP) provides regular weekly transportation by motorbike taxi to the largest market in the city of Kananga to individuals living in rural villages surrounding the city. We exploit exogenous variation in the participants’ access to markets, the total numbers of customers, and the number of repeated customers induced by the randomization to different market types. First, we empirically assess whether markets are value laden. Second, we test three classic hypotheses about markets in social sciences: (1) markets make humans more trusting, more trustworthy, and more likely to view social interaction as a positive-sum game (the doux-commerce thesis); (2) markets turn humans into self-interested utility maximizers who become more detached from their communities; (3) markets make humans feel poorer by raising the standards of material wealth that is perceived to be necessary for happiness (the Rousseau hypothesis).
The Religious Landscape of Kananga, D.R. Congo
Across sub-Saharan Africa, churches play pivotal roles as social, economic, and political centers in vibrant free religious markets, in which indigenous beliefs and Christian beliefs are practiced in syncretism. Churches offer educational, insurance, and welfare services, and serve as platforms for political discourse, profoundly influencing individuals’ values and aspirations. This project aims to enhance our understanding of the role of churches for economic development by providing descriptive evidence on the religious landscape in Kananga in the Democratic Republic of Congo. For this end, we conducted a comprehensive church census, representative surveys of pastors and congregants, and textual analyses of church service recordings
Teaching
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Data Science: Foundations of Statistics (M.Sc., Lecturer, CERGE-EI, 2024)
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Economic Development (Ph.D., Lecturer, CERGE-EI, 2025)
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Comparative Historical Economic Development (Ph.D., Teaching Fellow for Nathan Nunn, Harvard, 2021)
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Economics and Morality (B.Sc., Teaching Fellow for Ben Enke, Harvard, 2021)
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Religion and Political Economy (B.Sc., Teaching Fellow for Robert Barro, Harvard, 2020)
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A Libertarian Perspective on Economic, Social, and Foreign Policy (B.Sc., Teaching Fellow for Jeff Miron, Harvard, 2020)
Clara Sievert
CERGE-EI
clara.sievert@cerge-ei.cz
