Research 2020-2022

I. Climate change and the concentration of resources:

    1.“Climate change, urbanisation and the spatial distribution of population and economic activity”:,

 With Tom McDermott (from Galway University and LSE) and Melanie Krause (from Hamburg University), we studied the connection between climate change and the spatial distribution of population and economic activity within countries. In contrast to the existing literature, we study not only the evolution of aggregate urban rates but also those of several other dimensions of urbanisation, including measures of urban concentration, city growth, density and form. We also take a global view allowing us to show the widespread nature of the effects, as well as to uncover important heterogeneities across world regions, by baseline climate, as well as by socio-economic characteristics, including income and economic structure. To do so, we build a unique global dataset on the location of population and economic activity, including aggregate census data, satellite data on built-up areas, and data on light intensity at night, complemented with global climatic data, aggregated at the country level. 

This led to a publication in the Journal of Economic Geography.

    2.“Climate change, urbanisation and conflict”:

Building on our research of climate change and the spatial distribution of population, with Tom McDermott and Maria Lopez-Uribe (from Universidad de Los Andes), we studied how natural disasters and climatic trends affect urbanisation patterns and social conflict. We combine our global dataset on the location of population and economic activity and global climatic data with i) novel data on flood events - distinguishing those that affected large cities directly from those that occurred outside of our sample of large cities – overlapped with gridded population data, and ii) data on social urban disorders in more than 103 large cities in 86 countries worldwide, from 1990 onwards.With this unique dataset, we analyse how natural disasters outside large cities, like flood events, can lead to faster city growth, and in turn to higher likelihood (and frequency) of urban conflict. 

See our outcome paper in the Journal of Development Economics.

    3.“Climate change and inequality within countries”: 

Concentration of resources also comes in the form of income inequality. Complementing the research described above, I connect my interest on inequality with that on climate change, by studying how changes in climatic patterns can affect the within-countries distribution of income. I aim at doing this by looking at a global panel of countries, combing our global climatic data with data on income distribution within countries over the last decades. 

See current working paper.

II. Inequality and development: 

    4. “Commodity price shocks and inequality: a global view”:

Following my interest on understanding income inequality, with Soran Mohtadi, we analysed how commodity price shocks affect income distribution. We do this taking a global view, building a unique dataset looking at 23 commodities and the evolution of their international prices, as well as export shares of these commodities for 80 countries worldwide from 1990 to 2016. With these data, we construct country-year specific commodity price shocks, and relate these shocks to the evolution of income inequality in each of the 80 countries studied. We also aim to complement our global analysis with a more detailed analysis of internal dynamics by focusing on individual countries. 

See our publication in Structural Change and Economic Dynamics.

    5. “Inequality and resilience: an analysis of Spanish municipalities during the Great Recession”    

With Vicente Royuela and Fabian Geelhoedt (from the Universidad de Barcelona), we study the association between income inequality and economic resilience. In particular, we analyse how inequality can play a role in the resistance and recoverability of economic areas to economic shocks. We do so by studying the evolution of total employment and self-employment during and after the shock experienced during the Great Recession. We look at Spain as one of the countries where the impact of the crisis was the hardest. Using detailed data at the municipal level, we construct resilience indices for 995 Spanish municipalities between 2003 and 2018, allowing us to study differential responses across Spain in the face of the crisis of 2008 and the role of the within-municipality distribution of income.

See our paper in International Regional Science Review.

III. Cities and pollution:

My interest and previous research on urbanisation and climate change has also lead to an interest on cities and pollution. Population growth and rapid urbanisation worldwide is leading to more people living in growing cities. Understanding the determinants of the levels and patterns of pollution in these cities is fundamental if we want to better comprehend and curb our environmental impact, as well as tackle climate change. In this regard, I aim at analysing the relationship between several characteristics of cities and their environmental performance. I do this benefiting from the unique global datasets put together for my other research projects with detailed information for countries and cities worldwide.

    6. “Urbanisation, cities and energy efficiency”

With colleagues at La Laguna University (Tenerife), we are studying the relationship between urban dynamics and energy efficiency. In particular, we study how the spatial distribution of population and economic activity within countries and cities affects their levels and evolution of energy efficiency.

    7. “Density, cities and pollution: a global view”

Finally, with Elisa Dienesch (from Sciences Po, Aix) and Melanie Krause, we are studied air pollution looking at countries and cities worldwide. In doing so, we revisit the relationship between population density and different types of air pollution, using i) a large panel of countries with data from 1960 to 2010, and ii) a unique and large sample of more than 1200 (big) cities around the world combining pollution data with satellite data on built-up areas, population, and light intensity at night at the grid-cell level for the last two decades. Our detailed data also allows us to study how the spatial set-up of a city influences the relation between density and pollution. In addition to our empirical analysis, we provide calibration exercises based on a theoretical framework and using the elasticities from our econometric results.

Our research was published in Ecological Economics.