Research

PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS:

Air Pollution and the Environment:

5. Wood-Burning Restrictions and Air Pollution: The Case of Air Quality Warnings in Southern Chile (with Cristian Concha1). Accepted at Environment and Development Economics, 2025 [View] — Featured in: [Universidad de Chile][LaTribuna]

4. The Health Benefits of Solar Power Generation: Evidence from Chile (with Beia Spiller and J. Cristobal Ruiz-Tagle). Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2024 [View] — Featured in: [EDF Blog Post][Foco Económico][LaTercera].

3. Association Between Long-Term Air Pollution Exposure and COVID-19 Mortality in Latin America (with Jorge Bonilla, Alejandro Lopez-Feldman, Paula Pereda, and Cristobal Ruiz-Tagle). PLOS One, 2023 [View] — Featured in: [EfD Blog Post]

2. Coal-to-Gas Fuel Switching and its Effects on Housing Prices (with Scott Loveridge). Energy Economics, 2022 [View]

1. Air Quality Warnings and Temporary Driving Bans: Evidence from Air Pollution, Car Trips, and Mass-Transit Ridership in Santiago. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2021. [View]

Extractive Industries and Local Economies:

4. Unconditional Cash Transfers and Voter Turnout (with Alexander James and Brock Smith). Economic Inquiry, 2025 [View]

3. Oil, Politics, and “Corrupt Bastards” (with Alex James). Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2022 [View]

2. Is Mining and Environmental Disamenity? Evidence from Resource Extraction Site Openings. Environmental and Resource Economics, 2020. [View]

1. Mineral Taxes and the Local Public Goods Provision in Mining Communities (with Dusan Paredes). Resources Policy, 2017. [View]

WORKING PAPERS: 

Digging Deep: Resource Exploitation and High-Level Education (with Lenin Balza and Camilo de los Rios) IDB Working Paper Series 10-2022 [Link][Latest Version][R&R at World Development]

Do resource-extraction booms deter postsecondary education? We explore this question by examining the higher education-related decisions of Chilean high school graduates during the 2000s commodities boom. Mineral extraction boosts enrollment in technical education but lowers completion rates for four-year professional degrees. Effects vary by economic background, with dropout rates higher among public high school graduates, typically serving low-income groups. Our study highlights differing impacts of natural resources on human capital accumulation among income groups in resource-rich economies.

SELECTED WORK IN PROGRESS:

Blasting Dust: The Pollution-Health Impact of Industrial Mining Developments (with Gustavo Ahumada, Lenin Balza and Nicolás Gomez)

Renewable Energies, Fossil Fuel Displacement and Academic Performance in Environmental Justice Communities (Winner of CAF Grant 2022-2023)

Drought-Driven Fossil Fuel Emissions and Health (with Danae Hernandez-Cortes, Sophie Mathes, and Ricardo Ramos Fontes)

Environmental Enforcement in the Aftermath of Major Environmental Disasters (with Lenin Balza and Nicolás Gomez)

The Economics of Green Technology Adoption in Latin America (with Lenin Balza, Hernán Bejarano, and Nicolás Gomez)

Oil Booms and Voter Turnout (with Alexander James)

OTHER PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS:

3. Spatial Aggregation Bias in Implicit Prices of Environmental Amenities. Economics Bulletin, 2019. [View]

2. Disaggregation of Sectors in Social Accounting Matrices Using a Customized Wolsky Method: A Comment on its Estimation Bias. Applied Economics Letters, 2016. [View]

1. Scales of Production and Mining Economies: The Case of Chile in its Regional Dimension (with Patricio Aroca) (In Spanish). EURE, 2014. [View][Media Coverage]

CHAPTERS IN BOOKS:

5. Air Pollution in the Global South: An Overview of its Sources and Impacts (with Sandra Aguilar-Gomez) In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Economics and Finance, April 2025. doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190625979.013.972. [LatestVersion][View]

4. Project Analysis and the Regional Dimension (with Patricio Aroca), in Evaluación Social de Proyectos: Orientaciones para su Aplicación. Aguilera, R. (Editor). Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República, Uruguay. 2011.

3. Copper Mining in the Antofagasta Region (with Patricio Aroca), in Región de Antofagasta, Pasado, Presente y Futuro. Llagostera, A. (Editor). Ediciones Universitarias, Universidad Católica del Norte, Chile. 2010.

2. Water Resources in a Dry Area (with Marcelo Lufin and Marcos Hasewaga), in Región de Antofagasta, Pasado, Presente y Futuro. Llagostera, A. (Editor). Ediciones Universitarias, Universidad Católica del Norte, Chile. 2010.

1. La Experiencia del Instituto de Economía Aplicada Regional (IDEAR) de la Universidad Católica del Norte (with Esteban Lopez Ochoa), in Centros de pensamiento estratégico territorial: Instrumentos de la gobernanza regional en Chile, Vergara, P. (Editor). Subsecretaría de Desarrollo Regional y Administrativo, Chile. 2010.


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CU Environmental and Resource Economics Workshop. Colorado, 2017 – Photo Credits: Sarah Jacobson

  1. Student. ↩︎