Peer-Reviewed Publications
-
Digging Deep: Resource Exploitation and High-Level Education
World Development, 2026
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, who typically serve low-income groups. Our study highlights the unequal impact of natural resources on human capital accumulation across income groups within resource-rich developing economies. -
Wood-Burning Restrictions and Air Pollution: The Case of Air Quality Warnings in Southern Chile
Environment and Development Economics, 2026
Despite the substantial evidence linking particulate matter exposure to adverse health outcomes, a large portion of the global population, particularly in low-income countries, continues to rely on highly polluting fuels, such as wood, for cooking and heating. This study evaluates the immediate effects of wood-burning restrictions, which are triggered by air quality warnings, on levels of fine (PM2.5) and coarse (PM10) particulate matter in southern Chile. Using a difference-in-differences design that incorporates pre-policy data, we provide plausible causal estimates indicating that wood-burning restrictions lead to significant reductions in hourly PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations during the most severe air quality warning. Additional analyses, including a regression discontinuity design, further support these findings. While our analysis suggests that wood-burning restrictions are effective, they may not be sufficient to reduce air pollution concentrations to levels that are considered safe for public health. -
Air Pollution in the Global South: An Overview of its Sources and Impacts
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Economics and Finance, 2025
The literature on the impacts of air pollution on both health and non-health outcomes in the Global South is examined, focusing on the growing body of causal evidence, and on the several pollution sources that are particularly relevant in the Global South, including indoor air pollution, particulate emissions from wildfires, and agricultural burning. The evidence consistently shows that, across different contexts, air pollution has severe health consequences, including high rates of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, as well as premature mortality. Indoor air pollution, in particular, poses a significant burden, especially in rural areas. In addition to health impacts, air pollution also has non-health consequences, such as reduced productivity, impaired cognitive performance, pollution-induced migration, and associated economic impacts. The review highlights the growing body of scientific research documenting these impacts. Yet, notable regional disparities still remain. -
Unconditional Cash Transfers and Voter Turnout
Economic Inquiry, 2025
We estimate the effect of unconditional cash transfers on voter turnout, leveraging a large-scale natural experiment, the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) program, which has provided residents with a check of varying size 1 month before election day since 1982. We find that larger transfers cause people to vote, especially in gubernatorial elections in which a 10% increase in cash ($190) causes a 1.4 percentage point increase in turnout. Effects are concentrated among the young and poor. Survey data suggests the mechanism is reduced voter apathy. Implications are discussed. -
The Health Benefits of Solar Power Generation: Evidence from Chile
Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2024
Renewable energy can yield social benefits through local air quality improvements and their subsequent effects on human health. We estimate some of these benefits using data gathered during the rapid adoption of large-scale solar power generation in Chile over the last decade. Relying on exogenous variation from solar irradiation and incremental solar generation capacity over time, we find that solar energy displaces coal generation and curtails hospital admissions due to respiratory diseases. These effects are largely manifested in cities downwind of and near coal plants that are displaced by the introduction of new solar. The reduction in exposure to air pollution from these displaced coal plants seems to be driving this relationship. Our results help quantify the health benefits that can be achieved through greater renewable energy investments. -
Association Between Long-Term Air Pollution Exposure and COVID-19 Mortality in Latin America
PLOS One, 2023
Recent studies have shown a relationship between air pollution and increased vulnerability and mortality due to COVID-19. Most of these studies have looked at developed countries. This study examines the relationship between long-term exposure to air pollution and COVID-19-related deaths in four countries of Latin America that have been highly affected by the pandemic: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico. Our results suggest that an increase in long-term exposure of 1 μg/m3 of fine particles is associated with a 2.7 percent increase in the COVID-19 mortality rate. This relationship is found primarily in municipalities of metropolitan areas, where urban air pollution sources dominate, and air quality guidelines are usually exceeded. By focusing the analysis on Latin America, we provide a first glimpse on the role of air pollution as a risk factor for COVID-19 mortality within a context characterized by weak environmental institutions, limited health care capacity and high levels of inequality. -
Oil, Politics, and “Corrupt Bastards”
Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2022
Does oil corrupt? We test this theory using forty years of U.S. state-level data measuring corruption as both convictions of corruption and the frequency that words like “corrupt”, “fraud”, and “bribe”—and their iterations—appear in newspapers. We find that oil-rich U.S. states experience more corruption than their oil-poor counterparts, but only during periods of high oil prices, suggesting a causal relationship. Results are robust to a variety of modeling assumptions and specifications. Implications and mechanisms are discussed. -
Coal-to-Gas Fuel Switching and its Effects on Housing Prices
Energy Economics, 2022
We derive causal property value impacts of the coal-to-gas fuel switching conversion implemented by several power plants in the United States. We use an extensive dataset of property transactions around the country and adopt several spatial difference-in-difference approaches that use records of residential property transactions of homes with pollution exposure and proximity to the fuel-switching plants before and after the switch. The use of homes near coal-fired plants that did not innovate strengthens these estimations. The results suggest that the shutdown of coal-fired generators increased property values by roughly 12%–20% within 1 mile of distance from fuel-switching stations. These effects significantly increase once we consider wind exposure of homes around these plants, which brings to light the strong and localized disamenity effect of coal-fired power stations. Conservative back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that the fuel-switching led to a $70-million increase in property values around the country. -
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
Driving restrictions are a common governmental strategy to reduce airborne pollution and traffic congestion in many cities of the world. Using high-frequency data on air pollution, car trips, and mass-transit systems ridership, I evaluate the effectiveness of temporary driving bans triggered by air quality warnings in Santiago, Chile. I employ a fuzzy regression discontinuity design that uses the thresholds in the air quality index used to announce these warnings as instruments for their announcement. Results show that these temporary bans reduce car trips by 6–9% during peak hours, and by 7–8% during off-peak hours. This is consistent with air pollution reductions during peak hours, and with increases in the use of Santiago's mass-transit systems during hours the systems run with excess capacity. Increments in mass-transit ridership uncover the importance of alternative modes of transportation in securing the effectiveness of temporary driving bans. -
Is Mining and Environmental Disamenity? Evidence from Resource Extraction Site Openings
Environmental and Resource Economics, 2020
Extractive industries are often challenged by nearby communities due to their environ-mental and social impacts. If proximity to resource extraction sites represents a disamen-ity to households, the opening of new mines should lead to a decrease in housing prices. Using evidence from more than 6000 new extraction sites in Chile, this study addresses whether the heavy environmental and social impacts of digging activities outweigh their local economic benefits to the housing market in emerging economies. Findings from a spatial difference-in-difference nearest-neighbor matching estimator reveal that households near mining activity get compensated with lower rental prices, mostly in places with high perceptions of exposure to environmental pollution. Further analysis suggests that this compensation is lower among new residents of mining towns, which constitutes evidence of a taste-based sorting across space. Results in this study bring to light the need of incor-porating welfare effects of potential social and environmental disruptions in future studies addressing the economic impact of new mining operations. -
Mineral Taxes and the Local Public Goods Provision in Mining Communities
Resources Policy, 2017
Fiscal regimes to the mining industry facilitate the revenue-raising task of resource-dependent economies as they reduce the local tax burden of their residents. Whether these fiscal arrangements translate into a higher allocation of public goods in these economies remains yet unclear. We analyze the effects that local mineral taxation has on the provision of public goods in mining communities using Chile as a case study. We examine the effects of a non-distortionary tax on local concessions using a panel of 345 local governments between 2009 and 2014. To identify the effect, we compare the benefits of the tax on mining localities using two counterfactual groups of non-mining localities. We control for time-invariant and time-variant unobservable factors through both a fixed-effects and an instrumental variable fixed-effects estimator. Results show that the mineral tax increases the provision of only two out of four indicators of public goods. Further evidence suggests that local mineral taxation crowds out other local taxes.
Other Peer-Reviewed Publications
-
Spatial Aggregation Bias in Implicit Prices of Environmental Amenities
Economics Bulletin, 2019
Applications of hedonic price functions aimed at eliciting implicit prices of environmental goods generally rely on spatially aggregated measures to proxy for micro-level perceptions of these amenities. This paper provides empirical evidence of the bias that arises in the elicitation of these implicit prices due to spatial aggregation. Cross-sectional data on more than 12,000 rental homes is used to derive implicit prices of air quality, using households' perceptions of air pollution aggregated at different spatial levels. Results show that higher aggregation levels add a downward bias to marginal willingness-to-pay measures for air quality improvements, increasing point estimates of the price of air quality. These findings suggest caution when interpreting implicit prices elicited from spatially aggregated measures of environmental amenities. -
Disaggregation of Sectors in Social Accounting Matrices Using a Customized Wolsky Method: A Comment on its Estimation Bias
Applied Economics Letters, 2016
Barrera–Lozano et al. (2015) suggest an approach to disaggregate SAM matrices using a customized method based on Wolsky (1984). Starting from an aggregated sector, they propose the extraction of a branch instead of its partition. This study compares these two methods based on the magnitude of their estimation bias of the disaggregated technical coefficient matrix. From simulations of the disaggregated Leontief matrix, this work calculates linkages and multipliers for common sectors derived from using either the Wolsky (1984) sectoral disaggregation or the Barrera–Lozano et al. (2015) sectoral extraction. Results show that both approaches provide biased estimators, with the last one showing a significantly higher bias, especially in cases of incomplete information. This comparison suggests the need of additional research to provide bias corrections for input–output disaggregation methodologies. -
Scales of Production and Mining Economies: The Case of Chile in its Regional Dimension
EURE, 2014
An important share of Chilean copper production is located in two regions: Antofagasta and Atacama. In recent years there has been a rise in the price of copper, and the incomes of the inhabitants of these regions have varied differently as a response to the variations in the price of copper. This article analyzes these differences between the evolu-tion of regional income based on the size or scale of production in the mining sector. Using an input-output model disaggregated by the scale of production (large versus small and medium-sized scales) of the mining sector for each region, linkages and multipliers have been calculated and a sensitivity analysis carried out in order to test the strength of the estimations. This strategy allowed for identifying and calculating the impact of each scale on local income and production, showing the heterogeneous impact of the mining sector on local economies, which is very relevant for evaluating the current Chilean mining policy.
Chapters in Books (in Spanish)
-
Project Analysis and the Regional Dimension
in Evaluación Social de Proyectos: Orientaciones para su Aplicación. Aguilera, R. (Editor). Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República, Uruguay. 2011
-
Copper Mining in the Antofagasta Region
in Región de Antofagasta, Pasado, Presente y Futuro. Llagostera, A. (Editor). Ediciones Universitarias, Universidad Católica del Norte, Chile. 2010
-
Water Resources in a Dry Area
in Región de Antofagasta, Pasado, Presente y Futuro. Llagostera, A. (Editor). Ediciones Universitarias, Universidad Católica del Norte, Chile. 2010
-
La Experiencia del Instituto de Economía Aplicada Regional (IDEAR) de la Universidad Católica del Norte
in Centros de pensamiento estratégico territorial: Instrumentos de la gobernanza regional en Chile, Vergara, P. (Editor). Subsecretaría de Desarrollo Regional y Administrativo, Chile. 2010