About
I am a Ph.D. candidate in Economics at the Université de Montréal and an affiliate of CIREQ. I am on the 2026–2027 academic job market. My doctoral work is featured in the Maison des affaires publiques et internationales scholar portrait (in French).
I study how public policy shapes competition, prices, entry, and access in concentrated and digital markets, from broadband subsidies in the United States to mobile money in Senegal. I combine causal evidence with structural models and develop econometric tools when existing methods are not scalable or robust enough for the policy question.
Job market paper
Build or Subsidize? The Welfare Effects of Deployment and Affordability Subsidies in U.S. Broadband
Abstract
Should broadband subsidies make service affordable, or build it where it does not exist? The United States committed roughly $65 billion to both margins at once, and in concentrated markets the two interact: the incidence of a demand subsidy depends on firms’ pricing and product responses, while a deployment grant can reshape competition through entry. I evaluate the $14 billion Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) and the $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program in one welfare framework, pairing continuous-treatment event studies with a demand-and-entry model spanning more than 70,000 census tracts. I bound fixed costs with moment inequalities, making nationwide entry estimation feasible without solving the full equilibrium game. ACP exposure cut posted prices by 7–10 percent at peak and shifted demand toward faster plans; BEAD’s effects emerge only after the construction lag implied by its rollout, consistent with entry as the operative channel. A 75 percent BEAD subsidy returns about $7 per dollar over five years, while ACP roughly breaks even. The gains barely overlap: BEAD’s gains concentrate in monopoly tracts, exceeding duopoly gains tenfold, while ACP’s gains concentrate among low-income households. The programs are therefore complements, not rivals: build where deployment is unprofitable, then subsidize affordability where price binds.
Interests
- Industrial Organization
- Econometrics
- Applied Microeconomics
- Public Economics
Education
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Ph.D. in Economics, 2021–2027 (expected)Université de Montréal, Canada
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M.Sc. in Statistics and Economics, 2016–2019Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Analyse Economique, Senegal
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B.Sc. in Mathematics, 2013–2016Université Nazi Boni (ex. Université Polytechnique), Burkina Faso
Selected awards & fellowships
- Finalist, Bank of Canada Graduate Student Paper Award2025
- Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture Fellowship, ranked 2nd2024–2026
- Ph.D. Scholarship, Maison des Affaires Publiques et Internationales, FAS2026–2027
- J.W. McConnell Foundation Chair Scholarship in American Studies2025–2026
- Ph.D. Fellowship, Department of Economics and CIREQ, Université de Montréal2021–2024
- World Bank Vice President’s Program for African Statistical Schools2019–2021
Selected presentations
- 2026 African Econometric Society Conference, Cairo; AMIE Workshop; CIREQ; Industrial Organization Study Group, Montréal
- 2025 Competition Bureau of Canada (invited seminar), Gatineau; Bank of Canada Graduate Student Paper Award Workshop, Ottawa; Congrès SCSE, Orford; CIREQ-UdeM Seminar
- 2024 CIREQ Econometrics Conference, Montréal; Canadian Econometric Study Group Annual Meeting, Toronto
References