James Habyarimana's primary interests are in applied development economics. His dissertation included papers on the impact of a new Tsetse control technology on households, the impact of a banking crisis on employment growth of affected firms and an investigation of the relationship between schooling inputs and child performance. His work has been published in journals such as the Lancet, AIDS, AEJ Applied, Journal of Public Economics, APSR, JHR and others. He is currently working on randomized evaluations of the role and types of information in road safety, sanitation, savings for health and financial literacy. He is also evaluating a variety of national strategies to improve cognitive outcomes in a range of African countries. He joined IZA as a Research Affiliate in January 2004 and became a Research Fellow in March 2009.