Luis R. Martínez
Welcome to my website. I am an assistant professor at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. My main research areas of interest are political economy, development, public finance, and economic history, with a regional focus on Latin America. I have a PhD in economics from the London School of Economics.
[Curriculum Vitae] [Research statement]
[Google Scholar] [Twitter] [SSRN]
Email: luismartinez@uchicago.edu
Academic Publications:
Higher Education and Mortality: Legacies of an Authoritarian College Contraction
Forthcoming at Journal of the European Economic Association [publisher] [working paper] [replication files]
The Intergenerational Transmission of Higher Education: Evidence from the 1973 Coup in Chile
Forthcoming at Explorations in Economic History [publisher] [working paper] [replication files]
Natural Resource Rents, Local Taxes and Government Performance: Evidence from Colombia
Forthcoming at Review of Economics and Statistics [publisher] [working paper] [replication files]
Selected Media coverage: Not Another Politics Podcast
The Geography of Repression and Opposition to Autocracy
American Journal of Political Science, 2023, Vol. 67 (1), pp 101-118 [publisher] [working paper] [replication files]
A Glimpse of Freedom: Allied Occupation and Political Resistance in East Germany
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2023, Vol. 15 (1), pp 68-106 [publisher] [working paper] [replication files]
How Much Should We Trust the Dictator's GDP Growth Estimates?
Journal of Political Economy, 2022, Vol. 130 (10), pp 2731-2769 [publisher] [working paper] [replication files]
Selected Media coverage: Washington Post, Quartz, The Economist , The Times, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal
How Effective Are Monetary Incentives to Vote? Evidence from a Nationwide Policy
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2022, Vol. 14 (1), pp 293-326 [publisher] [working paper] [replication files]
Media coverage: VoxDev
Transnational Insurgents: Evidence from Colombia's FARC at the border with Chávez's Venezuela
Journal of Development Economics, 2017, Vol. 126, pp 138-153 [publisher] [working paper] [replication files]
Is It My Money or Not? An Experiment on Risk Aversion and the House-Money Effect
Experimental Economics, 2014, Vol. 17 (1), pp 47-60 [publisher] [working paper] [replication files]
Working Papers:
with Maria Carreri (Updated: May 2023)
- Revision requested at Journal of the European Economic Association
- Honorable mention at the 2022 ADB-IEA Innovative Policy Research Award
- Media coverage: VoxDev
with Maria A. Bautista, Felipe González, Pablo Muñoz and Mounu Prem (March 2023)
- Revision requested at Journal of Historical Political Economy
with Giorgio Chiovelli, Leopoldo Fergusson, Juan David Torres and Felipe Valencia-Caicedo (Updated: March 2024)
Work in Progress:
Displacing the Political Fiscal Cycle: Blessing or Curse?
How Resilient Are Exporting Firms? Evidence From Chavez's Trade War With Colombia
Pre-PhD Working Papers:
Diversification, Networks and the Survival of Exporting Firms [PDF]
Good Predictions and Bad Policies [PDF]
Teaching:
Analytical Politics II: Political Institutions (MPP) [syllabus]
The Political Economy of Natural Resources (MPP/BA) [syllabus]
Media:
The Pie [podcast]: "From Authoritarianism to Democracy: The Political Economy of Latin America" (2024)
Voice of America (China): "Shandong Automaker Accused County Head of Falsifying Economic Data" (2023)
Ceteris Paribus [podcast]: "Luis Martinez: El PIB de las dictaduras, la paz en Colombia y la independencia" (2022)
Clarín (Argentina): "Joe Biden recibe a Guillermo Lasso en un fuerte gesto de apoyo a Ecuador ante las turbulencias en la región" (2022)
The Course [podcast]: "Luis Martinez: I am not the conventional economist" (2022)
L'Opinion (France): "Election présidentielle: la Colombie entre dans l’inconnu" (2022)
CNN en Español [Globoeconomía con José Antonio Montenegro, TV]: "Luis Martínez" [Part 2] [Part 3] (2021)
El Espectador (Colombia): "¿Joe Biden reconocerá a Juan Guaidó como presidente encargado?" (2021)
University of Chicago: Guest Lecturer at Faculty Fellows Discussion at International House (2019)
Pell Center [Story in the Public Square, TV]: "Luis Martinez" (2018)