About

Francis Annan (PhD, Columbia, 2018) is an assistant professor of economics at the Agricultural & Resource Economics department at UC Berkeley. His research centers on development economics and microeconomic issues, with a focus on digital financial markets, at-scale government programs, insurance markets, and firms in sub-Saharan Africa and the United States. Professor Annan is a Faculty Research Fellow at the NBER, an Affiliated Professor at BREAD, J-PAL, and CEGA, the Scientific Lead and Co-Chair of the Retail Finance Distribution (ReFinD) Research Initiative at ISSER, and a Fellow at the Center for Development Economics and Policy (CDEP) and the Center for Environmental Economics and Policy (CEEP). Prior to his current position, he was an Assistant Professor of Economics, Risk, and Insurance at the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. His educational background includes a PhD in Sustainable Development (Economics Track) from Columbia University, obtained in 2018, a Master of Science from Mississippi State University in 2012, and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Cape Coast in 2008.

Research topics

• Economics
• Business
• Computer Security
• Computer Science
• Political Science
• Psychology
• Medicine
• Law
• Demographic economics
• Microeconomics
• Virology
• Social psychology
• Development economics
• Advertising
• Economic growth

Selected publications

• Competition for Transparency

  AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2025-05-30

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• Competition for Transparency

  AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2025-05-30

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• Payments to Resolve Inequalities and Climate Change (PRICE) -- Pilot

  AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2024-11-22

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• Misconduct and Reputation under Imperfect Information

  Journal of Political Economy · 2024-11-22 · 5 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Misconduct—market actions that are unethical and indicative of fraud—is a significant yet poorly understood issue that underlies many economic transactions. We design a field experiment to study the impact of two-sided antimisconduct information programs, which we deploy on the local markets for mobile money (“human ATMs”) in Ghana. The programs lead to a large reduction in misconduct (−21⁢ percentage points=−72%) and, as a result, broader improvements in overall market activity, consumer welfare, and firm revenue. We show the treatment effect is due to a combination of more accurate consumer beliefs about misconduct and increased vendor reputation concerns.

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• Measuring consumer price elasticity for mobile money services

  AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2024-09-05

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• The Welfare Effects of Beneficiary Control over the Timing of Cash Transfers

  AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2024-10-30

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• Optimizing Subsidy Allocation in Two-sided Markets: Evidence from Digital Payment

  AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2024-09-09

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• Randomized Entry: The Equilibrium Effects of Entry in Digital Financial Markets

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2024-11-01

  reportOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  We created randomized variation across and within markets to estimate the equilibrium effects of small microenterprises' entry into a new market: the market for mobile money services.Entry has a negative net effect on firm misconduct in mobile money.There is a positive direct effect but a similar-sized negative indirect effect on prices for non-financial goods/services.Market-level price-cost markups decreased, indicating net gains in consumer surplus.We nd evidence of withinmarket revenue reallocation for mobile money, and a large services multiplier: revenues for nonfinancial goods/services increased by 20%.We show the improvements come from adoption externalities and decreased transaction costs.

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• Perceptions and Performance Under Incentive Contracts

  AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2024-09-22

  dataset1st authorCorresponding
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• Payments to Resolve Inequalities and Climate Change (PRICE) -- Pilot

  AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2024-11-22

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  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Belinda Archibong

  Barnard College

  36 shared

• Uche Eseosa Ekhator-Mobayode

  7 shared

• Xavier Giné

  5 shared

• Patrick Opoku Asuming

  University of Ghana

  5 shared

• Stefano Carattini

  University of St. Gallen

  5 shared

• Chiman Cheung

  Berkeley College

  4 shared

• Justice Mensah

  University of Ghana

  4 shared

• Aly Sanoh

  World Bank Group

  3 shared

Awards & honors

• Faculty Research Fellow at the NBER
• Affiliated Professor at BREAD
• Affiliated Professor at J-PAL
• Affiliated Professor at CEGA
• Fellow at the Center for Development Economics and Policy (C…