Welcome! I'm an assistant professor in the Business and Public Policy group at UC Berkeley Haas doing research at the intersection of development economics, public finance, and political economy. I have three research agendas:

 1. Building Fiscal Capacity and State Accountability in Fragile Settings

 Published and Accepted

  • Weigel JL, Bessone P, Bergeron A, Tourek G, Kabeya J ®. 2026. “Supermodular Bureaucrats: Evidence from Randomly Assigned Tax Collectors in the DRC.” Cond. Accepted, American Economic Review. Paper.

  •  Jensen A and Weigel JL. 2026. “No Taxation Without Administration: Bringing the State Back into the Public Finance of Developing Countries.” Journal of Economic Literature. Working Paper. AEA highlight.

  • Balan P, Bergeron A, Tourek G, Weigel JL.  2026. “Property Rights and Social Institutions in Urban Africa: Experimental Evidence from a Land Formalization Program in the DRC.” Cond. Accepted, Comparative Political Studies. Paper.

  • Bergeron A, Tourek G, and Weigel JL. 2024. “The State Capacity Ceiling on Tax Rates: Evidence from Randomized Tax Abatements in the D.R. Congo.” Econometrica 92(4): 1163-1193. Paper. JPAL Summary.

  • Ngindu EK, Weigel JL. 2023. “The Taxman Cometh: A Virtuous Cycle of Compliance and State Legitimacy in the D.R. Congo.” Economica (100th Anniversary Edition) 12489: 1-35. Working Paper.

  • Balan P, Bergeron A, Tourek G, Weigel JL. 2022. “Local Elites as State Capacity: How Local Information Increases Tax Compliance in the D.R. Congo.” American Economic Review 112(3): 1-36. Paper. VoxDev.

  • Weigel JL. 2020. “The Participation Dividend of Taxation: How Citizens in Congo Engage More with the State when It Tries to Tax Them.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 135(4): 1849-1903. Paper. Appendix. Related links: Vox Dev, ICTD, Law360, World Bank.

Working Papers / In Progress

  • Bergeron A, Weigel JL, Tourek G, Ngindu EK ®. “Does Collecting Taxes Erode the Responsiveness of Informal Leaders? Evidence from the DRC” R&R, American Economic Journal - Economic Policy. Winner of IIPF Peggy and Richard Musgrave Prize 2023. Working Paper.

  • Tourek G, Laroche A, Bergeron A, Naritomi J, Weigel JL, Ngoma M ®. “Does Progressivity Raise Tax Capacity? Experimental Evidence from DR Congo.” Working Paper.

  • Ahrenshop M, Bergeron A, Paler L, Tourek G, Weigel JL. “Delegating Tax Collection to Local Elites Does Not Undermine Demand for Accountability in the D.R. Congo.” Working Paper.

  • de la O A et al. “Making Citizens Legible to the State: A Six-country Randomized Experiment to Increase Formalization by Reducing Transaction Costs.” PDF.

  • Bergeron A, Davoine E, Granato G, Ngoma M, Robinson JA, Weigel JL. “Legal Antecedents of Fiscal Capacity: Experimental Evidence from Congo.” [fieldwork ongoing]

  • Bergeron A, Boyer C, Kapon S, Weigel JL. “Does Tax Bargaining Cause State Building? Evidence from the DRC” [fieldwork ongoing]

  • Danner S, Ngoma M, Pomeranz D, Tourek G, Weigel JL. “Can Mobile Money Aid Tax Administration? Evidence from the DRC” [fieldwork ongoing]

  • Danner S, Ngoma M, Pomeranz D, Tourek G, Weigel JL. “Home Effects in Tax Collection: Evidence from the DRC” [fieldwork ongoing]

  • Benshaul-Tolonen A, Cheung C, Miguel E, Mudenda D, Weigel JL. “Extractives and African Development: Evidence from the Largest Copper Discovery in a Century.” [fieldwork ongoing]

2. Interaction Between Culture and Institutions

Published and accepted 

  • Bergeron A, Carvalho JP, Henrich J, Nunn N, Weigel JL. 2026. “Zero-Sum Thinking, the Evolution of Effort- Suppressing Beliefs, and Economic Development.” Cond. accepted, Review of Economic Studies. Working Paper.

  • Cerkez N, Hartman A, Weigel JL, Zay Ya K. “Can Mental Health Programs Have Social Externalities? Experimental Evidence from Myanmar.” Cond. accepted, Journal of Development Economics. Working Paper.

  • Lang M et al. 2019. “Moralizing Gods, Extended Prosociality, and Religious Parochialism Across 15 Societies.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B 286: 20190202. PDF.

  • van Dorp et al. 2019. “The Genetic Legacy of State Centralization in the Kuba Kingdom of the Democratic Republic of Congo.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 116(2): 593-598. PDF. BBC Inside Science.

  • Lowes S, Nunn N, Robinson JA, and Weigel JL. 2017. “The Evolution of Culture and Institutions: Evidence from the Kuba Kingdom.” Econometrica 85(4): 1065-1091. PDF. Appendix. Related links: Cato Institute.

Working Papers

  • Ngoma M, Sievert C, Jaravel X, Nunn N, Weigel JL ®. “How Market Access Shapes Wellbeing and Values: Experimental Evidence from the D.R. Congo.” [working paper coming soon]

  •  3. Political Economy of State Building and Institutional Change

 Published and Accepted

  •  Callen M, Levy G, Muthukumaran S, Weigel JL, Yuchtman N. 2026.  “Detecting Critical Junctures in Real Time: Foundations, Measurement, and Applications from 120 Years of Reporting,” Forthcoming in the Handbook of Political Economy (eds. Daron Acemoglu, James Robinson). Working Paper.

  • Callen M, Weigel JL, Yuchtman N. 2024. “Experiments about Institutions.” Annual Review of Economics 16:105-31. Paper.

Working Papers / In progress

  • Callen M, Fiorin S, Pande R, Prillaman S, Weigel JL, Yuchtman N. 2026. “Institutional Uncertainty and State Building: National-Scale Evidence from Nepal.” [working paper coming soon]

  •  Callen M, Pande R, Weigel JL, Yuchtman N. “Procedural Justice and State Capacity: Evidence from Birth Registration in Nepal.” [fieldwork ongoing]

  • Callen M, Kanz M, Quiviger Z, Weigel JL, Yuchtman N. “Coordinating Beliefs and Critical Junctures: Experimental Evidence from 18 Countries.” [fieldwork ongoing]

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

  • Bergeron A, Carvalho JP, Henrich J, Nunn N, Weigel JL. “The Dynamics of Development in a Zero-Sum World.” Cond. accepted, Econometric Society Monographs, Vol. 3 (Ch. 5). Working Paper.

  •  Naritomi J, Sequeira S, Weigel JL, Weinhold D. 2019. “RCTs as an opportunity to promote interdisciplinary, inclusive, and diverse quantitative development research.” World Development 127:104832. Paper

  • Lowes S, Nunn N, Robinson JA, and Weigel JL. 2015. “Understanding Ethnic Identity in Africa: Evidence from the Implicit Association Test (IAT).” American Economic Review: P&P 105(5):1-8. PDF Appendix. VoxEU.

  • Kapepula GT, Konshi MM, Weigel JL. 2022. “Prosociality and Pentecostalism in the D.R. Congo.” Religion, Brain, and Behavior 12: 150-170. Paper.

  • Farmer P et al. 2013. “Reduced Premature Mortality in Rwanda: Lessons from Success.” British Medical Journal 346:f65. Paper.