During the academic year 2023-2024, I will be a visiting scholar at the Economics Department of Duke University (Fall) and a visiting assistant professor at the Sol Price School of Public Policy of the University of Southern California (Spring).
I am also a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a Research Affiliate at the IZA Institute of Labor Economics, and an associate editor of the Journal of Human Capital.
My CV is here. These are my research and teaching statements. Here is a video in which I provide an overview of my recent projects and research agenda.
I am an applied micro-economist working at the intersection of labor and development economics. My research investigates early childhood education, fertility, and labor force participation. I aim to generate scientific knowledge that contributes to creating socially efficient public policy for tackling poverty, both domestically and internationally. In one of my most recent projects, I am a principal investigator in a randomized trial of guaranteed basic income targeted to poor individuals living in rural and semi-rural areas of South Carolina.
The subjects of my current projects are poor women and their children, either in the United States or in developing countries. Development economics usually focuses on countries other than the United States. However, a significant fraction of American women and their children live in poverty. Two examples illustrated in the figure to the left are the following: 1) Arkansas' current maternal mortality rate is virtually identical to that of El Salvador, which is both the smallest country in Central America and one of the most disadvantaged countries in the region; and 2) Mississippi's current infant mortality rate is similar to that of Turkey, another developing country according to several standards. Commonalities in the development of children and the decision-making of poor individuals permit a cohesive agenda, studying individuals who live in different contexts but face similar constraints and scarcities.