Working in collaboration with a worldwide network of students and colleagues, he conducts research on a wide range of topics related to poverty, economic development and the environment in developing regions of the world. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, USAID, the Ford Foundation, and The World Bank.

Much of his research focuses on household land and labor allocation in marginally productive agricultural areas. He is interested in nutrition and health, and methods to connect data on weather and climate, including remotely-sensed satellite data, to observational data on economic behaviors and outcomes on the ground. His goal is to help inform policies to make global food production more environmentally sustainable. He studies the interactions between poverty and environmental degradation so as to help eliminate both. During the 2016/17 academic year he will be spending a portion of his time as a Faculty Fellow in the Purdue Policy Research Institute.