I am a PhD economist specializing in causal inference and experimentation. I design and analyze randomized field experiments, and estimate causal effects in large observational data sets. Much of my recent research measures the productivity of software engineers and other tech workers.
I was a senior research specialist at Princeton University and an assistant professor at the African School of Economics. I received my PhD in economics from Duke University.
E-mail: gn@gabornyeki.com. If you read Spanish, then my name is pronounced pretty close to how you would say gábor ñéki. It is written as [ˈɡaːbor ˈɲeːki] in IPA.
Working papers
Screening for Engineering Talent
Summary: Software firms endogenously choose their production technology. In a signaling model, choosing a high-effort programming language attracts high-ability engineers. I show evidence for the model in a data set on engineer skills, and in another one on U.S. job postings.
Work in progress
Manager Workload, Feedback Style, and Workplace Productivity
Summary: We use neural networks to capture the tone of workplace feedback between software engineers. Using an instrumental variables strategy, we estimate the effect of supervisor workload on both engineer productivity and the tone of the feedback they receive.
Co-authors: Calvin Jahnke and Carolyn Tsao
General and Specific Experience in Sequential Production
Summary: I introduce novel measures of individual output quality for software engineers and test learning by doing. In a large software project, quality only benefits from specific experience and is in fact harmed by general experience.
The Effect of Technology Training for Women in Nigeria
Summary: We design and run a randomized experiment to evaluate a job skills training for young women entering tech careers. (Currently in the field.)
Co-authors: Martin Abel and Oyebola Okunogbe
Parental Education and Gender Inequality: Evidence from Colonial Schools in Nigeria
Co-authors: Léonard Wantchékon and Dozie Okoye
Social and Political Institutions, and Colonial Schools in Nigeria
Co-authors: Léonard Wantchékon and Dozie Okoye
Shaping Students’ Education and Career Aspirations: Evidence from Nigeria’s National Youth Service Corps
Summary: In a cluster-randomized trial across 152 Nigerian high schools, we test whether exposure to fresh university graduates as role models shifts students’ education and career aspirations, measured in surveys and in a revealed-preference task.
Co-authors: Oyebola Okunogbe and Léonard Wantchékon
Evaluating Multidimensional Programs in the Presence of Endogenous, Multidimensional Networks
Summary: In a cash-transfer trial across 415 villages in rural Kenya, we develop methods for evaluating programs whose effects propagate through endogenous social networks.
Co-authors: Robert Garlick and Kate Orkin
Image Concerns and Voting Order in Group Decisions
Co-author: Gergely Hajdu