Richard Akresh is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is also a Research Associate for the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), an affiliate of the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD), a research fellow for the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), and a senior affiliate of the Households in Conflict Network (HiCN). His research focuses on child health and education in Africa and spans the fields of development, health, and labor economics. Richard has explored the impact of conflict on human capital and health investments for young children, the long-term consequences of exposure to war as a child, and how household structure and sibling rivalry impact households’ educational investments. He has conducted randomized control trials of alternative ways to deliver cash transfers to poor households to improve child health and education in Burkina Faso, and he is currently working there on a project which looks at the impact of Safety Nets on Early-Childhood Development.