Ph.D., Economics and Education, Teachers College at Columbia Universidad
M.A., Public Administration and International Development, Harvard Kennedy School
B.A., Economics, Universidad del Pacifico (Peru)
My research lies at the intersection of labor economics and higher education, with a particular focus on community colleges, high school-to-college and college-to-work transitions, financial aid, and labor market trajectories after college. The goal of my work is to increase race/ethnic and gender equality in education by rigorously examining ways to reduce wage and college completion gaps and providing experimental and quasi-experimental evidence to improve education policies. My work has been published in economics of education and policy journals including Education Finance and Policy, Economics of Education Review, European Economic Review, Fiscal Studies, and Research in Higher Education.
Prior to my academic journey, I worked as consultant at the World Bank, UN Women and UNDP and as evaluation specialist at UNICEF.
When the Need Meets Merit: The Role of Merit Requirements in Need-based Student Aid (with Massimiliano Bratti and Tommaso Agasisti). Also available as IZA Discussion Paper No. 14423. European Economic Review.
Can Dual Enlloment Algebra Reduce Racial/Ethnic Gaps in Early STEM Outcomes. (2021). CCRC Summary Research Report, New York
Labor Market Trajectories for Community College Graduates: How Returns to Certificates and Associate's degrees Evolve Over Time (with Judith Scott-Clayton). (2020). Education Finance and Policy, https://doi.org/10.1162/edfp_a_00325.
Do Differential Grading Standards Across Fields Matter for Major Choice? Evidence from a Policy Change in Florida. (2020). Research in Higher Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-020-09606-8.
Precision and Stability of Schools’ Value-Added Estimates: Evidence for Italian Primary Schools (with Tommaso Agasisti). (2020). Applied Economics Letters, https://doi.org/10.1080/13504851.2020.1763242.
Evaluating the stability of school performance metrics for school choice: Evidence for Italian schools (with Tommaso Agasisti). (2019). Fiscal Studies, 40, issue 3, p. 401-425.
Should we subsidize student employment? Conditional counterfactuals and the outcomes of work-study participation, (with Judith Scott-Clayton). (2016). Economics of Education Review, 52(2016), 1–18.