JUAN CARLOS GOZZI

I am an economist with more than ten years of experience working on banking and financial sector issues, in central banks, international organizations, the private sector, and academia. I have extensive experience conducting applied economic analysis, combining data, theory, and quantitative methods to analyze problems and provide policy recommendations. I have successfully worked as an individual contributor, team member, and team lead.

I have worked at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, the University of Warwick, and the World Bank. I obtained my Ph.D. in Economics from Brown University in 2011.

I have conducted empirical research on financial globalization, corporate finance, firm financing and access to capital, public sector interventions to improve access to finance, and the transmission of financial shocks, which has been published in top academic journals. I have also conducted research on political economy and labor markets.

Here you can find my CV

Here you can find my Google Scholar citations and my IDEAS-RePEc works.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS AND WORKING PAPERS

Financial Integration and the Co-Movement of Economic Activity: Evidence from U.S. States

(with Martin Goetz) Journal of International Economics 135, 2022

We analyze the effect of the geographic expansion of banks across U.S. states on the co-movement of economic activity between states. Exploiting the removal of interstate banking restrictions to construct time-varying instrumental variables at the state-pair level, we find that bilateral banking integration increases output co-movement between states. The effect of financial integration depends on the nature of the idiosyncratic shocks faced by states and is stronger for more financially dependent industries. Finally, we show that integration (1) increases the similarity of bank lending fluctuations between states and (2) contributes to the transmission of deposit shocks across states.

To the Victor Belongs the Spoils? Party Membership and Public Sector Employment in Brazil

(with Fernanda Brollo and Pedro Forquesato) Paper

We analyze how political discretion affects the selection of government workers, using individual-level data on political party membership and matched employer-employee data on the universe of formal workers in Brazil. Exploiting close mayoral races, we find that winning an election leads to an increase of over 40% in the number of members of the winning party working in the municipal bureaucracy. Employment of members of the ruling party increases relatively more in senior positions, but also expands in lower-ranked jobs, suggesting that discretionary appointments are used both to influence policy-making and to reward supporters. We find that party members hired after their party is elected tend be of similar or even higher quality than members of the runner-up party, contrary to common perceptions that political appointees are less qualified. Moreover, the increased public employment of members of the ruling party is long-lasting, extending beyond the end of the mayoral term.

Innovative Experiences in Access to Finance: Market Friendly Roles for the Visible Hand? The World Bank, Latin American Development Forum Series

(with Agusto de la Torre and Sergio Schmukler)

Access to financial services contributes to economic growth and poverty alleviation, by allowing firms and households to finance high-return investment projects, manage risks, and weather unexpected shocks. Improving access to finance for firms and individuals remains a key challenge in many developing countries. The state’s role in fostering access to finance among firms and households has been a source of debate for decades. This book describes some innovative public-private partnerships in Brazil, Chile, and Mexico that illustrate the important role that the state can play in overcoming coordination failures, first-mover disincentives, and obstacles to risk-sharing. These experiences are consistent with an emerging view that recognizes a limited role for the state in financial markets, but contends that there might be room for well-designed, restricted interventions in collaboration with the private sector to foster financial development and broaden access. The book provides a systematic analysis of these experiences, including an analytical framework to understand problems access to finance and a discussion of the design of state interventions in financial markets.