I am Francis
Nyonzo

I am a Tanzanian economist, researcher and author, and an emerging scholar working at the intersection of development economics, governance and behavioral economics. My work pairs rigorous applied methods with close knowledge of East African institutions, asking how policy actually shapes — and is shaped by — the behavior of citizens, firms and states.

My research program centers on public finance and taxation, mobile money and digital financial inclusion, behavioral responses to policy, and the political economy of governance and corruption. I work primarily with survey and administrative data, applying econometric and quasi-experimental methods (using STATA), and I publish in peer-reviewed journals while sharing replication code and data openly.

As a Fulbright Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow at Michigan State University (2024–25), I deepened my training in data science, behavioral economics and trade policy. As an incoming Rotary Peace Fellow (2026–27) at Makerere University, I am extending this work into the governance and conflict dimensions of development. I am also a forthcoming contributor to The Routledge Handbook of Political Corruption (2nd ed.), co-authoring on political corruption in East Africa.

I am an active peer reviewer for the African Tax Research Network, an International Emerging Scholar with the African Studies Association, and have presented at the AEA/ASSA meetings and international conferences in the US and Canada. Alongside my research, I write widely for public audiences, translating economic evidence into accessible policy commentary.