Rocco is a Senior Research Scientist at the What Works Hub for Global Education at the Blavatnik School of Government and Lecturer in Quantitative Methods at the Oxford Department of International Development. He is a member of the Centre for the Study of African Economies.
His research focuses on education and on social protection and household resilience to climate shocks. Much of his current work uses field experiments to study how social protection and education systems can be made more resilient to climate extremes such as floods and droughts — through cash transfers, and learning interventions that protect children’s learning during crises. A related strand studies the dynamics of learning itself: whether there are thresholds in foundational skills beyond which gains become self-sustaining. In earlier work he researched labour markets, inequality, poverty alleviation, poverty dynamics, and social stratification, using longitudinal surveys, field and lab experiments, and qualitative studies.
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