I am a DPhil student in Economics at the University of Oxford, working on the behavioural economics of effective giving. My research combines theory and experiments to understand how and why people decide to give to charity, and how we can leverage that to design environments that nudge their decision towards higher-impact causes.Alongside my academic work, I am building GoodWallet, a digital giving platform which aims to help people (particularly younger generations) start to give and help them discover effective charities. Based on the insights from my own research, the platform will ultimately try to blend multiple dimensions: a focus on users forming a long-term donor identity and encourages slow curation of charities rather than impulse giving, as well as a strong social component.I am also highly involved in the effective altruism community at Oxford, where I became president for the 2025-2026 academic year.
My research combines theory and experimental methods to better understand both (i) whether and when donors value effectiveness, and (ii) which interventions can shift behaviour toward more impactful giving. Empirically, I draw on experimental evidence from charity dictator games to identify which mechanisms drive giving decisions.
The first two chapters of my thesis establish a new behavioural framework for understanding charitable giving, which heavily departs from how economists have traditionally thought about this issue. By carefully reviewing and synthesising the experimental evidence we have accumulated over the years, I propose that giving is best understood as a multi-stage decision process shaped by moral and informational frictions, rather than as the outcome of a single utility maximisation problem. In particular, individuals often begin in a state of moral and information deadlock, where the presence of many deserving causes and the difficulty of comparing them inhibits action. Giving occurs only when this deadlock is broken – for example by salient giving opportunities, social cues, or curated choice environments – which reduce complexity and enable individuals to form a tractable opportunity set. My final chapter examines what happens when individuals are prompted to give to multiple charities at the same time (for example, are they more willing to select effective charities in that case?) in a realistic decision environment that mirrors the GoodWallet app I'm building.
I am most proud of GoodWallet, the giving platform I am trying to build. It is still at the prototype stage (you can navigate the prototype here: https://misty-search-80306585.figma.site), but it has been an invaluable exercise in transitioning from abstract research to concrete real-life impact. One of my PhD chapters will involve testing some of the key behavioural assumptions behind the app, to ensure it ends up functioning as intended. Ultimately, I hope the app will help to increase the reach of high impact charities beyond the immediate Effective Altruism community. Working on GoodWallet has also helped me gain valuable skills in entrepreneurship and build a strong network of impact oriented entrepreneurs.
Effective Thesis had a substantial impact on both my research direction and how I think about my work.The most valuable components for me were the theory of change and stakeholder mapping exercises.
They pushed me to move beyond abstract research questions and instead think concretely about who my work is for, what decisions it could influence, and what barriers currently prevent that impact from happening. This reframing has stayed with me, even though my specific research questions have evolved since I did these exercises.
One of the clearest outcomes is that I likely would not have started GoodWallet without this experience. Thinking explicitly about stakeholders and implementation made me realise that some of the questions I was studying could be explored not only through papers, but also through building and testing real-world tools.
Despite the widespread availability of effective giving information, only a negligible portion of the funds donated worldwide go to expert-recommended effective charities. I hope my research on charitable behaviour will inform future decisions from effective charities about how to fundraise and reach new donors, and I will actively take steps to disseminate my research findings once my thesis is done.
However, with the help of Effective Thesis, I realised that "impact" goes beyond producing rigorous academic research, and research students can start on their impactful journey almost straight away. For example, I became involved in mentoring other students through Research Impact Oxford (RIO). My group worked on finding nudges for effective giving that could be applicable to Good Wallet. Over 8 weeks, I was able to teach students about key principles in effective altruism and how to think beyond-the-box to find innovative effective giving solutions. Being able to share my knowledge with my immediate community before even graduating was a path to impact I hadn't anticipated before.
On a personal level, the experience increased my clarity about the kind of impactful work I want to do, and where my strongest skills are. I now understand that even if we uncover what drives effective giving, translating that into real-world behaviour requires tools, platforms, and institutions that people actually engage with. In turn, this requires constant problem solving and creative thinking, as well as a strong entrepreneurial mindset - something I ended up finding very enjoyable!.
I would tell my past self to engage with stakeholders much earlier, even before feeling “ready.” Many of the uncertainties in my research – what questions matter, what outputs are useful, what assumptions are realistic – became much clearer after talking to people who are actually making decisions in the space. I would also tell my past self to do things that are outside my comfort zone, even if I feel like an imposter, and to always seek mentoring from more experienced people.
For others pursuing a high impact thesis, my main advice would be to not treat impact as something that happens only after the research is done. And also to be open to non-traditional outputs (e.g. a giving start up!), not just papers. This was probably the best part of my PhD.
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