Heitor Pellegrina
Patrick J. O'Malley III and Christine A. O'Malley Assistant Professor
Department of Economics
University of Notre Dame
Research Interests:
Trade, Development, and the Environment [CV] [Research Statement]
Contact Information:
Address: Office 3042, Jenkins Nanovic Hall
Email: hpelleg3 [at] nd.edu
Working Papers
Farm Size Distribution, Weather Shocks, and Agricultural Productivity, with Julian Artega, Margarita Gáfaro, Ana María Ibanez, and Nicolás de Roux (Jan. 2025)
We document new empirical facts about farm size dynamics and the impact of weather shocks across developing countries. Using an administrative dataset for Colombia, we also show that weather shocks increase the frequency of land sales and reduce farm sizes within municipalities. We calibrate a dynamic, heterogeneous household model in which uninsured farmers make landholding and occupational choices. We find that temporary weather shocks have long and persistent effects on the economy, taking more than a decade to fade out.
Diet, Economic Development, and Climate Change, with Lucas Correa and Jordan Norris (Feb. 2025) R&R, Economic Journal
We study the impact of economic development, trade policies, and dietary restrictions on GHG emissions from agriculture using a quantitative trade model that features multiple agricultural technologies and different income elasticities across food product. The GHG emissions from economic growth are substantially understated if diet and technology are shut down. Compared to food trade policies, dietary restrictions are both more effective in reducing GHG emissions, and more favorable when considering the losses in developing countries.
Deforestation: A Global and Dynamic Perspective, with Farid Farrokhi, Elliot Kang, and Sebastian Sotelo (Jun. 2025) [Coverage: TradeTalks]
We study the impacts of trade costs on deforestation through a dynamic, global perspective. We build a dynamic GE model of trade and land use, in which structural change and comparative advantage determine the extent, location, and timing of deforestation. Results indicate that the global forest area would expand in response to multilateral trade liberalization in agriculture, but that it would shrink when the liberalization is experienced by individual regions.
Publications and Accepted
Migration, Specialization, and Trade: Evidence from Brazil's March to the West, with Sebastian Sotelo (Jan. 2024) [App.]
Accepted, Journal of Political Economy
Trade and Technology Adoption in Distorted Economies, with Farid Farrokhi and Ahmad Lashkaripour [Replication] [Slides]
Journal of International Economics (Jul. 2024)
Trade, Technology, and Agricultural Productivity, with Farid Farrokhi [App.] [Slides] [Coverage: VoxDev]
Journal of Political Economy (Sep. 2023)
Irrigation and the Spatial Pattern of Local Development in India, with David Blakeslee, Aaditya Dar, Ram Fishman, Samreen Malik, Karan Singh [Replication]
Journal of Development Economics (Mar. 2023)
Trade, Farmers' Heterogeneity, and Agricultural Productivity: Evidence from Colombia, with Margarita Gáfaro [Replication]
Journal of International Economics (Jul. 2022)
From Bilateral to Centralized Markets: A Search Model for Commodity Exchanges in Africa, with Yaw Nyarko
Journal of Development Economics (Jul. 2022)
Trade, Productivity, and the Spatial Organization of Agriculture: Evidence from Brazil [Replication]
Journal of Development Economics (May 2022)
Other Writing
VoxDev Literature on Foreign Direct Investments Editors: Stefania Garetto, Nina Pavcnik, and Natalia Ramondo. Co-editors: Vanessa Alviarez, Nicolas Morales, David Hemous, Laura Boudreau, Jingtin Fan, Evangelina Dardati, Ralf Martin, Jose P. Vasquez, Nitya Pandalai-Nayar, Ezequial Garcia-Lembergman, Farid Farrokhi, Nicola Limodio, Grace Weishi Gu, Isabela Manelici, Galina Hale, Pierre-Louis Vezina (Feb. 2025)
VoxDev Literature on International Trade Editors: David Atkin and Amit Khandelwal. Co-editors: Laura Boudreau, Isabela Manelici, Rafael Dix-Carneiro, Ameet Morjaria, Pamela Medina, Meredith Startz, Bob Rijkers, Luigi Pascali, Brian McCaig (Feb. 2025)
Work in Progress
On Commodity Booms and Industrialization: Brazil before WWI, with Brock Rowberry, Andrei Laskievic, and Sebastian Sotelo
Directed Innovation meets Economic Development: Embrapa and Brazil's Agricultural Revolution, with Ariel Akerman, Jacob Moscona, and Karthik Sastry,
Of Boom and Ghost Towns: Early City Formation in the California Gold Rush, with Matthias Hoelzlein
Scaling Up Agricultural Insurance, with Jeremy Majerovitz (Project Accepted for the Carnegie-Rochester-NYU JME conference)
Teaching
2025 - Quantitative International Trade (PhD), University of Notre Dame [github website]
2025 - Development Economics II (PhD), University of Notre Dame
2023 - Economic growth (UG), University of Notre Dame
2021-2022 - Economic Policy and Environmental Economics (UG), NYU Abu Dhabi
2017-2020 - International Economics (UG), NYU Abu Dhabi
2017-2019 - Statistics for the Social Science (UG), NYU Abu Dhabi
Additional Material
A Brief Introduction to GitHub for Social Scientists using Stata and Dropbox, with Andres Fajardo (GitHub website)