Senior Research Associate
University of Chicago
Department of Economics
Co-Director, LACEA-BRAIN
Co-Director, Joint Initiative for Latin American Experimental Economics (JILAEE)
My research asks why standard development interventions — capital, skills training, information campaigns — so often fail to create lasting change. The answer is frequently psychological: distorted beliefs, miscalibrated aspirations, and social norms that override evidence. I design field experiments that identify these constraints and test solutions. My work has shown that simple information treatments can close profit gaps between firms, and that addressing aspirations increases savings and investment more than business training alone.
Research
Publications
Critical Thinking and Misinformation Vulnerability: Experimental Evidence from Colombia (with John A. List, Lina Ramirez, Jaime Unda, and Beatriz Vallejo)
PNAS NEXUS, Volume 3, October 2024. [NBER WP, VoxDev]
Who should be first in line for the COVID-19 vaccine? Surveys in 13 countries of the public’s preferences for prioritisation (with Raymond Duch et al.)
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 118 (38), September 2021.
Do Migrant Social Networks Shape Political Attitudes and Behavior at Home? (with Catia Batista and Pedro C. Vicente)
World Development, Volume 117: pp. 328-343, May 2019. [CReAM Discussion Paper CPD 13/18; IZA Discussion Paper No. 11777]
Working Papers
The Hidden Costs of Visible Support: A Field Experiment on Coaching and Women’s Economic Empowerment (with Maria Sofia Casabianca, and Megan Lang) – Under Review (2026).
Pre-analysis plan filed with the AEA Registry: AEARCTR-0003214Z and AEARCTR-0007212. [Policy Brief]
From Destination to Origin: Experimental Evidence on the International Spillovers of Migrant Integration (with Catia Batista, Lara Bohnet, and Jules Gazeaud) – Working Paper (2026).
Pre-analysis plan filed with the AEA Registry: AEARCTR-0005188. [NOVAFRICA Working Paper No. 2205]
Scaling Skills (with Maria Sofia Casabianca and Megan Lang) – Working Paper (2024).
Keeping Up with the Joneses: Economic Impacts of Overconfidence in Micro-Entrepreneurs – Working Paper (2022).
[Coverage: World Bank Development Impact Blog, VoxDevLit]
(Selected) Work in Progress
Aspirations as Constraints on Entrepreneurship (with Catia Batista)
Updated draft coming soon.
Reputation Effects in Education Outcomes (with Catia Batista and Alexander Coutts)
Data collection completed – draft coming soon.
Constraints to Women’s Microenterprise Growth (with Megan Lang)
Data collection completed – draft coming soon.
We are What We Teach: Breaking Gender Gaps with an Innovative Introductory to Economics Course (with Camila Galindo)
In the field.
Exposure to Violence, Cooperative Behavior, and Emotions (with Simon Hug et al.)
Data collection under preparation.
Other Publications
International Migration and Social Network Spillovers of Political Norms (with Catia Batista and Pedro C. Vicente). In Brites Pereira L., Mata M.E., Rocha de Sousa M. (eds), Economic Globalization and Governance, Springer, 2021.
International Migration and the Transfer of Political Norms: Examples from Cape Verde and Mozambique (with Catia Batista and Pedro C. Vicente). In L. Chauvet; F. Gubert; T. Jaulin; S. Mesplé-Somps (eds.), Migrants: Agents of Political Change in Africa?, DeBoecke, January 2018.