Jesugnon Ezechias Djima is a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in Economics at the University of Houston, specializing in education, labor markets, and development economics. A native of Benin, he holds a Master’s in Mathematics, Economics, and Statistics from the African School of Economics and a Bachelor’s in Statistics and Applied Econometrics from the University of Abomey-Calavi.

Ezechias’s research is motivated by questions of equity and opportunity in low-income settings. His job market paper, “Rethinking Intergenerational Mobility: Evidence from West Africa Beyond the Co-Residence Sample Bias,” leverages newly harmonized household survey data from multiple West African countries to revisit long-standing questions in intergenerational mobility. The project addresses methodological challenges related to sample selection and measurement in mobility research within low-income contexts.

He brings a wealth of experience as a research assistant on multi-country projects funded by J-PAL, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and the Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE). These roles have equipped him with advanced fieldwork, data collection, and statistical analysis skills across diverse African contexts.