Dominik Naeher, PhD

Postdoctoral Researcher and Interim Professor of Development Economics
(Chair of Prof. Dr. Sebastian Vollmer)

Dominik Naeher joined University of Göttingen in 2021. Prior to his current position he worked as Assistant Professor of Economics at University College Dublin and earned his PhD from Goethe University Frankfurt (GSEFM) in 2018. His research combines economic theory with empirical methods to study topics across development economics, microeconomics, international economics, and the economics of information, with a particular focus on examining how information frictions shape economic decisions and development outcomes. His recent work encompasses areas such as technology adoption, climate adaptation, agricultural productivity, market regulation, regional integration, and policy evaluation. Dominik Naeher has taught at universities in Germany, France, Ireland, China, Korea, and South Africa. He also regularly shares his expertise by providing policy advice to international organizations and NGOs, including the World Bank, EBRD, Asian Development Bank, UNU-CRIS, and African Center for Economic Transformation.

Curriculum Vitae: CV

Research Interests: Development Economics, Microeconomics, International Economics, Economics of Information

Selected Publications:

Naeher D, Vollmer S (2024). General vs. Tailored Information for Technology Adoption: Evidence from a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial in India. Journal of Development Economics, Accepted (Pre-results track).

Naeher D (2022). Technology Adoption under Costly Information Processing. International Economic Review, 63(2), 699-753.

Naeher D, Schündeln M (2022). The Demand for Advice: Theory and Empirical Evidence from Farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. World Bank Economic Review, 36(1), 91-113.

Naeher D (2023). The Social Planning Problem with Costly Information Processing: Towards Understanding Production Decisions in Centralized Economies. Economica, 90(357), 285-314.

Other Journal Articles:

Naeher D, De Lombaerde P, Saber T. (2025). Evaluating Accession Decisions in Customs Unions: A Dynamic Machine Learning Approach. International Economics and Economic Policy, 22(2), 1-27.

Naeher D, Narayanan R, Ziulu V. (2024). Cash for Coolers or Sustainable Lighting? Assessing Different Components of a Large-Scale Energy Efficiency Program in Mexico. Journal of Development Studies, 60(4), 479-493.

Bogetić Ž, Naeher D (2024). The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: New Evidence on Alternative Views of Corruption. Applied Economics, 56(33), 4019-4032.

Naeher D, Narayanan R, Ziulu V. (2024). The Relevance of Development Policies to Confront Crisis Situations: World Bank’s Early Response to Covid-19. Journal of Policy Modeling, 46(5), 847-866.

Bogetić Ž, Naeher D (2024). Corruption and Government Revenue: Evidence of a Non-linear Relationship Driven by Crises. Journal of Applied Economics, 27(1), 1-17.

Saber T, Naeher D, Bendechache M (2024). Intelligent Computational Methods for Economics: Editorial. Expert Systems, 41(2), e13523.

De Lombaerde P, Naeher D, Saber T (2023). Regional Economic Integration and Machine Learning: Policy Insights from the Review of Literature. Journal of Policy Modeling, 45(5), 1077-1097.

De Lombaerde P, Naeher D, Saber T (2023). On the Optimal Size and Composition of Customs Unions: An Evolutionary Approach. Computational Economics, 62, 1457-1479.

Naeher D, Narayanan R, Ziulu V. (2023). Impacts of Energy Efficiency Projects in Developing Countries: Evidence from a Spatial Difference-in-Differences Analysis in Malawi. Energy for Sustainable Development, 73, 365-375.

Bogetić Z, Naeher D, Narayanan R (2023). Measuring Untapped Revenue Potential in Developing Countries: Cross-Country Frontier and Panel Data Analysis. Journal of Public Finance and Public Choice, 38(1), 89-127.

Naeher D, Narayanan R (2023). Attracting Private Capital for Development: Are Poorer Countries Less Efficient?. International Economics and Economic Policy, 20, 1-26.

He Y, Naeher D. (2022). Do Democracies Perform Worse During Pandemics? Evidence from 2020. Economics Bulletin, 42(3), 1681-1687.

De Lombaerde P, Naeher D, Saber T (2021). Regional Integration Clusters and Optimum Customs Unions: A Machine-Learning Approach. Journal of Economic Integration, 36(2), 262-281.

Naeher D, Narayanan R (2020). Untapped Regional Integration Potential: A Global Frontier Analysis. Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, 29(6), 722-747.

Naeher D (2015). An Empirical Estimation of Asia’s Untapped Regional Integration Potential Using Data Envelopment Analysis. Asian Development Review, 32(2), 178-195.

Dataset:

Naeher D, Albanna B, Kumar A, Vollmer S (2023) Household and Plot-level Survey Data on Adoption, Outcomes, and Perceptions of Early Sown Wheat and Zero Tillage in Northwest India. Scientific Data, 10(516), 1-5. [Data]

Working Papers:

The Political Economy of Patent Buyouts (with Amal Ahmad, Sebastian Vollmer). RAND Journal of Economics, R&R.

Using Data-Powered Positive Deviance to Assess the Adoption and Outcomes of Early-Sown Wheat Varieties in India (with Basma Albanna, Gunnar Hesch, Daniel Otto, Mohammad Hassan, Meha Jain, Sebastian Vollmer, Hanna Ewell, Raphael Nawrotzki). International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, R&R.

The Long-term Consequences of the Global 1918 Influenza Pandemic: A Systematic Analysis of Census Data from 51 Countries (with Juditha Wójcik, Christian Bommer, Sebastian Vollmer).

When Information Provision Backfires (And When Not): Insights from a Multi-Category Pricing Model with Rationally Inattentive Buyers (with Sergey Turlo).

Is Escaping the Fiscal Pro-Cyclicality Trap Possible? Evidence from the Middle East and North Africa (with Želko Bogetić).

Book Chapters and Other Publications:

Applications of DEA to Evaluate Resource Mobilization and Regional Integration Outcomes: Recent Trends and Future Challenges (with Raghavan Narayanan). In: Handbook on Data Envelopment Analysis in Business, Finance, and Sustainability: Recent Trends and Developments, S. Boubaker and T. Ngo (Eds.), World Scientific, 2024.

Impact Assessment of Two Energy Efficiency Projects in Malawi and Mexico. In: World Bank Group Support to Demand-Side Energy Efficiency: An Independent Evaluation, World Bank (IEG), 2023.

Relevance of the World Bank Group’s Early Response to COVID-19: A Cross-Country Sector Analysis. In: The World Bank Group’s Early Support to Addressing the Coronavirus (COVID-19): Economic Response, World Bank (IEG), 2023.

Cross-Country Analysis of Domestic Revenue Mobilization Efficiency in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. In: World Bank Support for Domestic Revenue Mobilization: An Independent Evaluation, World Bank (IEG), 2023.

Frontier Analysis of World Bank Group Approaches to Private Capital Mobilization. In: World Bank Group Approaches to Mobilize Private Capital for Development: An Independent Evaluation, World Bank (IEG), 2020.

Hunger, Food Insecurity, and Poverty Traps: Theory and Empirical Evidence from Developing Countries. In: Economics in Action: Topics and Resources, T. Brancaccio, Y. Deli, I. Pastine, and C. Whelan (Eds.), McGraw-Hill, 2019.

Fostering Regional Integration: Global Comparison and Frontier Analysis of Untapped Potential. In: Two to Tango: An Evaluation of World Bank Group Support to Fostering Regional Integration, World Bank (IEG), 2018.

Status of Global, Regional and Subregional Integration Efforts. In: ADB Support for Regional Cooperation and Integration: Thematic Evaluation Study, Asian Development Bank, 2015.