My research interests are African economic history – with an emphasis on South Africa -, slavery and colonial legacies. I am also interested in development economics, institutions, and poverty dynamics in both sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.

I am a contributor to the biggest African Economic History research project in the world named "The establishment, growth, and legacy of a settler colony: Quantitative panel studies of the political economy of the Cape Colony". The project aims to contribute to the literature on colonialism and global inequality by using big data and machine learning techniques to analyze the roots and gradual development of the Cape Colony, its institutions, and their impact on growth, inequality, and welfare over time and space. Our data and methods allow us to study gradual and complex changes of a settler economy at a level of detail never done before.