Curriculum Vitae
Address:
UCLA Department of Economics
9360 Bunche Hall
P.O.Box 951477
Los Angeles, California
90095-1477
Phone: (424) 603-7598
email: [email protected]
Education
Ph.D. Economics, UCLA, 2013 (expected)
M.A., Economics, UCLA, 2009
M.Sc., Economics, Universidad Torcuato di Tella, 2005
B.A., Economics, Universidad Torcuato di Tella, 2003
Awards
UCLA Dissertation Year Fellowship, 2012-13
UCLA Graduate Student Fellowship, 2008-12
Tuition Waiver, Dept. of Economics, 2007-08
Current Research
"Looking Under the Right Lamppost: A Significant Added Worker Effect in a Developing Country" (Job Market Paper)
The added worker effect refers to the notion that married women increase their labor supply in response to an unemployment event by their husband. In sharp contrast to previous literature which has focused on developed economies, this paper provides reduced form evidence of a large and significant added worker effect in the context of a developing country: Mexico. Wives whose husband lost their job are 11 percentage points more likely to enter the labor force, an entry rate that is 60% higher than wives whose husbands did not lose their jobs. Furthermore, the evidence suggests that entry is transitory as over 70% of wives exit the labor force within a year. Additionally, descriptive statistics suggest that wives who enter transitorily tend to choose low-skill, low-entry cost occupations such as domestic employees, street vending, etc… In this paper I also develop and estimate a structural model of household time allocation decisions that captures the key determinants of household labor supply. The estimated model is then used to perform two counterfactual policies; one policy offers unemployment insurance at varying replacement rates, and highlights the important crowd-out effects of unemployment insurance. The second policy studies the effects of shutting down access to low entry cost jobs for families with different levels of savings, and highlights the heterogeneous value of this sector for different families.
“Understanding Corruption: Theory and Evidence from the Audits of Local Governments” (Joint with Maurizio Mazzocco and Frederico Finan)
In this paper we provide a framework for understanding the decision of politicians to engage in corrupt activities. We developed and estimate a structural model of a politician's decisions to provide public goods and engage in corruption over the span of his political career. While our model is general, we develop and estimate it in the context of municipal governments in Brazil. Overall, our paper makes two main contributions to the existing literature. First, the proposed framework captures many of the various mechanisms by which politicians choose to engage in corruption, which enables us to assess empirically the relative importance of these different mechanisms. This lies in contrast to the previous literature whose empirical evidence has been mostly based on simple correlations. As a second contribution, we use the estimated model to evaluate the effectiveness of anti-corruption policies that increase politicians' wages, induce a higher probability of being audited by a central authority, or increases term limits.
Working Papers and Publications
“The Effect of Unemployment on Schooling Decisions in Urban Mexico” (Joint with Peter Bergman, RAND)
(Background Research) “Poverty Reduction and Growth: Virtuous and Vicious Circles”, Perry, Lopez, Maloney et. al., World Bank 2006, Washington D.C.
(Background Research) “Informality: Exit and Exclusion”, Perry, Arias, Maloney et. al., World Bank 2007, Washington D.C.
Employment History
Research Assistantship, Maurizio Mazzocco 2008-2012
Teaching Assistantship, Microeconomic Theory, Department of Economics 2007-2008
Medium-Term Consultant, Latin America Chief Economist Office, World Bank, 2006-2007
Short-Term Consultant, Latin America Chief Economist Office, World Bank, 2005-2006
Teacher Assistant, Universidad Torcuato di Tella, Buenos Aires, Argentina 2003-2005
Personal:
Citizenship: Argentina (born January 17, 1981)
Languages: Spanish (native), English (fluent)
Programming Skills: Stata, Matlab, Fortran, MPI, GPU programming
References
Maurizio Mazzocco, Associate Professor, UCLA Economics, (310) 825-6682, [email protected]
Maria Casanova, Assistant Professor, UCLA Economics, (310) 825-0849, [email protected]
Dayanand Manoli, Assistant Professor, U Texas at Austin, (512) 475-8515, [email protected]
UCLA Department of Economics
9360 Bunche Hall
P.O.Box 951477
Los Angeles, California
90095-1477
Phone: (424) 603-7598
email: [email protected]
Education
Ph.D. Economics, UCLA, 2013 (expected)
M.A., Economics, UCLA, 2009
M.Sc., Economics, Universidad Torcuato di Tella, 2005
B.A., Economics, Universidad Torcuato di Tella, 2003
Awards
UCLA Dissertation Year Fellowship, 2012-13
UCLA Graduate Student Fellowship, 2008-12
Tuition Waiver, Dept. of Economics, 2007-08
Current Research
"Looking Under the Right Lamppost: A Significant Added Worker Effect in a Developing Country" (Job Market Paper)
The added worker effect refers to the notion that married women increase their labor supply in response to an unemployment event by their husband. In sharp contrast to previous literature which has focused on developed economies, this paper provides reduced form evidence of a large and significant added worker effect in the context of a developing country: Mexico. Wives whose husband lost their job are 11 percentage points more likely to enter the labor force, an entry rate that is 60% higher than wives whose husbands did not lose their jobs. Furthermore, the evidence suggests that entry is transitory as over 70% of wives exit the labor force within a year. Additionally, descriptive statistics suggest that wives who enter transitorily tend to choose low-skill, low-entry cost occupations such as domestic employees, street vending, etc… In this paper I also develop and estimate a structural model of household time allocation decisions that captures the key determinants of household labor supply. The estimated model is then used to perform two counterfactual policies; one policy offers unemployment insurance at varying replacement rates, and highlights the important crowd-out effects of unemployment insurance. The second policy studies the effects of shutting down access to low entry cost jobs for families with different levels of savings, and highlights the heterogeneous value of this sector for different families.
“Understanding Corruption: Theory and Evidence from the Audits of Local Governments” (Joint with Maurizio Mazzocco and Frederico Finan)
In this paper we provide a framework for understanding the decision of politicians to engage in corrupt activities. We developed and estimate a structural model of a politician's decisions to provide public goods and engage in corruption over the span of his political career. While our model is general, we develop and estimate it in the context of municipal governments in Brazil. Overall, our paper makes two main contributions to the existing literature. First, the proposed framework captures many of the various mechanisms by which politicians choose to engage in corruption, which enables us to assess empirically the relative importance of these different mechanisms. This lies in contrast to the previous literature whose empirical evidence has been mostly based on simple correlations. As a second contribution, we use the estimated model to evaluate the effectiveness of anti-corruption policies that increase politicians' wages, induce a higher probability of being audited by a central authority, or increases term limits.
Working Papers and Publications
“The Effect of Unemployment on Schooling Decisions in Urban Mexico” (Joint with Peter Bergman, RAND)
(Background Research) “Poverty Reduction and Growth: Virtuous and Vicious Circles”, Perry, Lopez, Maloney et. al., World Bank 2006, Washington D.C.
(Background Research) “Informality: Exit and Exclusion”, Perry, Arias, Maloney et. al., World Bank 2007, Washington D.C.
Employment History
Research Assistantship, Maurizio Mazzocco 2008-2012
Teaching Assistantship, Microeconomic Theory, Department of Economics 2007-2008
Medium-Term Consultant, Latin America Chief Economist Office, World Bank, 2006-2007
Short-Term Consultant, Latin America Chief Economist Office, World Bank, 2005-2006
Teacher Assistant, Universidad Torcuato di Tella, Buenos Aires, Argentina 2003-2005
Personal:
Citizenship: Argentina (born January 17, 1981)
Languages: Spanish (native), English (fluent)
Programming Skills: Stata, Matlab, Fortran, MPI, GPU programming
References
Maurizio Mazzocco, Associate Professor, UCLA Economics, (310) 825-6682, [email protected]
Maria Casanova, Assistant Professor, UCLA Economics, (310) 825-0849, [email protected]
Dayanand Manoli, Assistant Professor, U Texas at Austin, (512) 475-8515, [email protected]