Research

Publications

Effect of pop-up bike lanes on cycling in European cities (2021). PNAS. [Published Paper][Preprint] with Nicolas Koch
Media: [NYT][Süddeutsche][Forbes]
The bicycle is a low-cost means of transport linked to low risk of COVID-19 transmission. Governments have incentivized cycling by redistributing street space as part of their post-lockdown strategies. Here, we evaluate the impact of provisional bicycle infrastructure on cycling traffic in European cities. We scrape daily bicycle counts spanning over a decade from 736 bicycle counters in 106 European cities. We combine this with data on announced and completed pop-up bike lane road work projects. On average 11.5 kilometers of provisional pop-up bike lanes have been built per city. Each kilometer has increased cycling in a city by 0.6%. We calculate that the new infrastructure will generate $2.3 billion in health benefits per year, if cycling habits are sticky.

No aggregate deforestation reductions from rollout of community land titles in Indonesia yet (2021). PNAS Brief Report. [Published Paper] with Jacqueline Liu, Nicolas Koch, and Sabine Fuss

Spillovers to manufacturing plants from multi-million dollar plantations: evidence from the Indonesian palm oil boom (2024). JAERE. [Published Paper] [Job Market Paper] with Robert Heilmayr and Nicolas Koch
We estimate spillover effects to local manufacturing plants in the Indonesian palm oil boom using a stacked difference-in-differences approach. We use new data on the establishment dates and ownership of palm oil mills to identify clean shocks from investments in new plantations. Local plantation booms caused increased sales and productivity of manufacturing plants, despite rising blue-collar wages. Using confidential input-output data, we also find shifts in plants’ product portfolios. They increased their share of tradable goods, but produced fewer relationship-specific goods. This is consistent with local road improvements. Our results are robust in a sample of large corporate groups that assign treatment more independently from changes in local conditions.

Working Papers

Price responsiveness of primary forest conversion in Indonesia: Evidence from a panel of palm oil mills with Valentin Guye

Dormant Papers

Effects of thermal inversion induced air pollution on COVID-19. [Preprint] with Hannah Klauber and Nicolas Koch