Christopher Hoy

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I am an applied microeconomist working on development economics, political economy, and public finance. My research has been published in leading journals, including the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Journal of Development Economics, and Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, featured in top media outlets, such as the New York Times, the Economist, and the BBC, and cited over 2,000 times. I received the 2025 Sir Tony Atkinson Prize from the Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.

I am currently employed as a McKenzie Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne (based in the Melbourne Institute) and on external leave from the World Bank. I am affiliated with the MIT Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), the World Bank Tax Data Lab (DATAX), and the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). Before joining the World Bank as a Young Professional, I held a position as a Research Fellow at the Australian National University and have worked for UNICEF, ADB, ODI, JPAL/IPA, and the Australian Government.

Recent working papers

Horizontal equity of taxation: Citizen beliefs and policy preferences. With Pierre Bachas, Anders Jensen & Mahvish Shaukat.
Managers as gatekeepers in the age of AI. With Yong Suk Lee, Cassandra Merritt & Jacob Dominski.
For shorter or poorer: Attitudes toward the trade-off between poverty and mortality. With Benoit Decerf & Olivier Sterck.

Publications

Selected articles

Why are relatively poor people not more supportive of redistribution? Evidence from a randomized survey experiment across ten countries. With F. Mager. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy (2021).
How does progressivity impact tax morale? Experimental evidence across developing countries. Journal of Development Economics (2025).
Attitudes towards reducing fossil fuel subsidies: Evidence across 12 middle-income countries. With Y. S. Kim, M. C. Nguyen, M. Sosa & S. Tiwari. Journal of Development Economics (2026).
American exceptionalism? Differences in the elasticity of preferences for redistribution between the United States and Western Europe. With F. Mager. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization (2021).
Political polarization, wage inequality and preferences for redistribution. With L. Page, C. Eckel, P. Grossman & D. Goldstein. Revise & resubmit, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization.
Revealing tax evasion: Experimental evidence from a nationally representative survey of Indonesian firms. With F. Jolevski & A. Obeyesekere. Revise & resubmit, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization.

Working papers

Horizontal inequity of taxation: Citizens' perceptions and preferences. With Pierre Bachas, Anders Jensen & Mahvish Shaukat.
For shorter or poorer: Survey-based values of the trade-off between poverty and mortality. With Benoit Decerf & Olivier Sterck.
Attitudes toward poverty reduction programs around the world. With François Gerard, Ben Waltmann & Edward Bond.
Informality, incidence and pass-through of VAT exemptions. With Matias Strehl-Pessina & Ruggero Doino.
Managers as gatekeepers in the age of AI. With Yong Suk Lee, Cassandra Merritt & Jacob Dominski.
Public preferences for economic reforms. With World Bank colleagues.
Trade-offs in the design of simplified tax regimes. With World Bank colleagues.

Grants & awards

World Bank Europe & Central Asia Research with Impact Award (2026)
World Bank East & Southern Africa Vice President's Team Award (2026)
Sir Tony Atkinson Prize, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality (2025)
World Bank East Asia & Pacific Vice President's Above and Beyond Award (2024)
World Bank Prosperity Vice President's Team Award (2022)
Most Downloaded Article, Economic Development and Cultural Change (2022)

Selected grants: World Bank Global Tax Program (US$1.25m) · Asian Development Bank Impact Evaluation Committee (US$600k) · Gates Foundation (US$200k) · Oxfam (US$125k) · GIZ (US$100k) · World Bank ESMAP (US$80k) · DFAT (US$55k) · FCDO (US$45k).

All peer-reviewed articles

2026

Attitudes towards reducing fossil fuel subsidies: Evidence across 12 middle-income countries. With Y. S. Kim, M. C. Nguyen, M. Sosa & S. Tiwari. Journal of Development Economics, 178, 103612.

2025

How does progressivity impact tax morale? Experimental evidence across developing countries. Journal of Development Economics, 172, 103398.
Intra-household dynamics and attitudes towards vaccines: Experimental and survey evidence from Zambia. With R. Kanagavel & C. Cameron. Review of Economics of the Household.

2024

Improving tax compliance without increasing revenue: Evidence from population-wide randomized controlled trials in Papua New Guinea. With L. McKenzie & M. Sinning. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 72(2), 691–723.
A false divide? Providing information about inequality aligns preferences for redistribution between right- and left-wing voters. With R. Toth & N. Merdikawati. Journal of Economic Inequality, 22(3), 669–707.
How have formal firms recovered from the pandemic? Insights from survey and tax administrative data in Zambia. With L. Simbeye, A. Koivisto, M. Maboshe & M. A. A. Malik. Journal of African Economies, 33(5), 538–561.
How does information about inequality shape voting intentions and preferences for redistribution? Evidence from a randomized survey experiment in Indonesia. With R. Toth & N. Merdikawati. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 112, 102274.

2022

Helping us or helping them? What makes foreign aid popular with donor publics? With T. Wood. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 70(2), 567–586.
Can a multipronged strategy of "soft" interventions surmount structural barriers for financial inclusion? Evidence from the unbanked in Papua New Guinea. With R. Toth & N. Merdikawati. Journal of Development Studies, 58(12), 2460–2482.
How information about economic inequality impacts belief in meritocracy: Evidence from a randomized survey experiment across Australia, Indonesia and Mexico. With J. J. B. Mijs. Social Problems, 69(1), 91–122.
Measuring global poverty before and during the pandemic: A political economy of overoptimism. With A. Sumner & E. Ortiz-Juarez. Third World Quarterly, 43(1), 1–17.
Addressing vaccine hesitancy in developing countries: Survey and experimental evidence. With T. Wood & E. Moscoe. PLOS ONE, 17(11), e0277493.

2021

Why are relatively poor people not more supportive of redistribution? Evidence from a randomized survey experiment across ten countries. With F. Mager. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 13(4), 299–328.
American exceptionalism? Differences in the elasticity of preferences for redistribution between the United States and Western Europe. With F. Mager. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 192, 518–540.
The effect of geostrategic competition on public attitudes to aid. With T. Wood & J. Pryke. Journal of Experimental Political Science, 8(3), 285–295.
The end of global poverty: Is the UN Sustainable Development Goal 1 (still) achievable? With A. Sumner. Global Policy, 12(4), 419–429.

Policy

I have contributed to policy dialogue through media engagement, policy reports and blogs.

Media

My work has been featured in Bloomberg, the New York Times, the Economist, CNBC, the BBC, Al Jazeera, the Guardian, Vox, the Conversation, Le Vif, the World Economic Forum, Devex, Oxfam's From Poverty to Power, ABC, Voice of America, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age, Channel News Asia, the Lowy Interpreter, the Jakarta Post, the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the National, the Post Courier and the Fiji Times.

Recent examples of media coverage include: