2011–2017 Ph.D. in Economics, University of Calgary, Canada. 2016(W) Visiting Student at the University of Michigan School of Information. Dissertation Title: "Three Essays in Luck, Effort, and Economic Opportunity" Dissertation Committee:Robert Oxoby (chair), Jean-Francois Wen, and Atsuko Tanaka
2007–2009 Master in Economics PEG, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia. Thesis: “Risk Preferences under Extreme Poverty: A Field Experiment".
2002–2007 Bachelor of Arts in Economics, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia. Minor in Business Administration.
Non-Academic professional Experience
2021 - 2022 Senior Behavioral Scientist, Behavioral Pensions (BeWay). What I didLead a Nudge Unit of seven incorporating BeSci in the development of more than 50 service solutions to improve the financial health of customers in a Major Financial Institution in Mexico. The development of these solutions included running more than 10 RCTs, which I co-supervised. In general, I designed and evaluated behavioral innovations for the financial sector, and gave training on Behavioral Economics to various pensions institutions throughout the region
2017 - 2021 Consultant, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Colombia. ProjectRetirement Savings Laboratory What I didIn 10 RCTs I helped design and evaluate, where we reached over 1.5mill low-income or self-employed workers in the Latin-American region, we significantly increased their average savings by 6%. Also, the public administrator of the Colombian defined benefit pension system changed their affiliate's account statements to resemble one redesigned by our team to increase understanding. In general, I provided regional support in the design and evaluation of behaviorally informed, or interventions with New technologies, that seek to incentivize voluntary savings for the retirement (www.iadb.org/savingslab) Directors Mariano Bosch and Fermin Vivianco
2010 & 2011 Main Consultant, Presidency of the Republic of Colombia for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Colombia. Project Systematization and Evaluation of two micro-finance programs: Rotatory Funds and Self-organized savings and loans associations. What I did In the first phase, we designed and implemented the systematization of the Rotatory Funds which was an strategy used by the government in the framework of the programs for the rights promotion and the sexual and reproductive health. Additional to surveys and semi-structured inquiries, we used economic experiments to make measures on trust, reciprocity, risk and behaviors towards public goods. On the second phase, we conducted the final evaluation of the program.
2009 – 2010 Consultant, The World Bank, Colombia. Project "Colombia Programmatic Quality of Education Program" (AAA) and the "Rural Education Project in Support of a Program to Improve Access and Quality" (APL). What I did (AAA) Consolidated Colombian education information from multiple sources (DANE, SINEB, State Exams and the Saber Tests, using the DUE-08), to conduct analyze institutional factors that affect the learning process. (APL) Work with the MEN in order to restructure the Results and Intermediate Indicators of the Programa de Educación Rural Phase II PER II. Director Raja Bentaouet Kattan (LCSHE). Supervisor Fernando López-Torrijos (Consultant)
2011-2016 Research Assistant, University of Calgary, Canada. What I did Design and analysis of economic experiments aimed at finding determinants of Social Capital. Supervisor Robert Oxoby.
2010-2011 Project Associate in Colombia, Ideas42 at Harvard University and Innovations for Poverty Action - IPA, Colombia. What I did Negotiation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation--mostly with social experiments--of programs and projects in microfinance, entrepreneurship and others with a high potential impact on the poor. Principal Investigator Antoinette Schoar ~ MIT. Coordinator Ximena Cadena ~ ideas42.
2007–2009 Research Assistant, Banco de la República- Subgerencia de Estudios Económicos & Centro de Estudios sobre Desarrollo Económico (CEDE), Colombia. Project Characterization of the Exporting and Importing Behavior of the Colombian Firms using transactions micro-data. NSF project SES-0922358: "Search and Learning in Export Markets". What I did Design and compilation of a database created using data from the "Superintendencia de Sociedades”, the Annual Manufacturer Survey and the survey of Micro-establishments. Analysis of transaction level data of the Colombian international trade with a panel of 11 years 1996-2007 (more than 10 million records). Characterization of the firms involved in trade with the use of the other sources. Principal Investigators Marcela Eslava ~ Universidad de los Andes; Johnathan Eaton ~ Penn. State University; Maurice Kugler ~Harvard University; James Tybout ~ Penn. State University. Coordinators Marcela Eslava, and Enrique Montes ~ Banco de la República
2016 College Scholarship. The College at the University of Calgary, Canada.
2016 Summer School Scholarship. I.S.E.O Institute, Italy.
2012–2015 Vanier Canada Graduate Scholar, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), Canada.
2014 Travel grant for the 5th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings on Economic Sciences. SSHRC, Canada.
2011 Graduate Scholarship Research Award, University of Calgary, Canada.
2011 Scholar, Colfuturo, Colombia.
2009 Scholar,Center for Excellency CeibA (www.ceiba.org.co), Colombia. Grant of USD 2,500 to conduct Economic Experiments.
Courses and seminars (Duration >= 1 week) and executive courses
2021 Public Management for Development. Inter-American Development Bank. Online [credential].
2018 Machine Learning and Public Policy. Universidad de los Andes summer course. Bogotá, Colombia.
2018 Client Engagement: Innovación Centrada en el Cliente. INCAE Business School - Executive Education. Washington, D.C., USA
2016 I.S.E.O Summer School. I.S.E.O Institute. Iseo, Italy.
2015 Winter Experimental Social Science Institute (WESSI). NYU-Abu Dhabi, UAE.
2014 Instructional Skills Workshop. University of Calgary.
2011 IPA/JPAL Staff Training Program. Boston, USA
2010 Topology and Analysis. Universidad de los Andes. Bogotá, Colombia.
2009 Organization of Social Networks and Topics in Complexity. Universidad de los Andes summer course. Bogotá, Colombia.
2008 Techniques for Evaluation of Public Policies. Universidad de los Andes summer course. Bogotá, Colombia. Professors: Orazio Attanasio and Marcos Vera.
2008 Stochastic Process. Universidad de los Andes. Bogotá, Colombia.
2007 Latin American Development in the Long Run. Universidad de los Andes summer course. Bogotá, Colombia. Professors: James Robinson and Sebastián Mazuca.
2006 Experimental Economics. Universidad de los Andes summer course. Bogotá, Colombia. Professor: Shyam Sunder.
Software Skills
Statistics Stata, R. Others LaTeX, Python.
Languages
Spanish Native
English Fluent
Service
2014-2016 Scholarship Mentor, Graduate Leader's Circle, University of Calgary. 2014 President, Economics Graduate Association (EGA), University of Calgary. 2013 Member, Professional Development Grants Committee, Graduate Students' Association (GSA), University of Calgary. 2005–2011 Permanent Volunteer, Fundación Bella Flor, Colombia, www.bellaflor.org. The Bella Flor Foundation is a social organization of students, professionals and members of the community of the Bella Flor neighborhood in Ciudad Bolivar, Bogotá. The foundation seeks to improve both the actual and future opportunities and life quality of children in Ciudad Bolivar. Currently the Foundation services 180 children and their families providing health, education, nutrition and arts programs.