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Mahounan Yedomiffi is a development economist whose research addresses the challenges of low school completion rates in developing countries, especially for poor children or girls. In his job market paper titled “Does Parental Involvement Improve Student Learning? The Role of Monitoring,” Mahounan conducted a rigorous randomized field experiment in Benin to improve secondary school completion by targeting more than 2,000 parents with an information intervention. His intervention clarified parents’ managerial roles in their child’s education and provided actionable recommendations to manage children's time and effort on educational production.
Mahounan is conducting other field experiments in West Africa to investigate barriers to girls' aspirations for STEM career choices and the role of gender norms on girls' performance. He recently met with the Ministry of Secondary Education in Benin to discuss his research findings and possibilities of scaling up.
Being a first-generation literate and born in a rural area with no hospital, electricity, or running water, Mahounan uses his research to inform policymakers about cost-effective interventions to improve education outcomes for the marginalized.
Mahounan worked as a teaching assistant for the principles of microeconomics and macroeconomics and as a lecturer at the African School of Economics.
Mahounan joined Dartmouth College as a postdoc in June 2024 and will become an assistant professor in June 2026.
During his time at the University of Illinois, Mahounan's research was supported by several grants and fellowships from the Graduate College and the Department of Economics. These include the Ferber & Sudman Dissertation Award for Survey Research, Dissertation Research Travel Grant, Nelle M. Signor Research Grant, Applied Micro Research Grant, Paul W. Boltz fellowship, and the Economics Department Summer Fellowship.