Work in Progress
Work in Progress
"Love me Tinder: Polarizing effects of alternative search methods in dating market". Job Market paper. [latest version].
Abstract:
Recent decades have brought both an increase in homogamy in the US and the arrival of new internet-based methods of searching for relationships, but no study has explored the potential link between those two changes. Using a novel database of existing couples’ reported search method, I show that more attractive individuals are less likely to use alternative search mechanisms, like internet. I then build a model with heterogeneous agents and search frictions in which the search method is endogenously determined. The model indicates that the advent of cheaper search methods has led to an increase in assortative matching. Empirical testing confirms the model’s predictions.
"You Are Nothing Without Me: Domestic Violence and Divorce" with Alexandre Janiak and Jeanne Lafortune. [latest version]
Abstract:
Easier divorce has often been argued as a way to reduce intimate partner violence (IPV) but empirical evidence on this topic is mixed. This paper proposes a theoretical model where violence can be used either as a retention mechanism or in response to exogenous cues. When the model transitions from mutual consent to unilateral divorce, the incidence of cue-trigger violence decreases but that of coercive violence increases. The positive impact on violence occurs more strongly when transfers between spouses are not possible or when violence is more costly to the inflicting partner. The model thus predicts that when the cost of violence is higher or when it is more culturally allowed for spouses to transfer resources, divorce liberalization should lead to decreases in violence while the opposite would be true in more traditional settings. This reconciles the variety of estimates provided in the literature.
"Marriage and Education Decisions in Post-Migration Settings" with Lorena Hakak. [latest version]
Abstract:
We develop a theoretical model to study how societal attitudes toward immigrants affect marriage decisions and educational investment. Individuals, natives and immigrants, differ in cultural identity and face distinct labor market opportunities. Agents decide whether to study and whom to marry, influenced by preferences for homogamous marriage and potential wage discrimination. In hospitable environments, marriage patterns reflect assortative matching within each group. Preferences for homogamy amplify incentives to invest in education, especially in groups where human capital is culturally valued. These preferences also reinforce the intergenerational transmission of traits through marriage. In hostile settings, however, low-educated natives may find it optimal to marry highly educated immigrants to increase household surplus. When preferences for homogamy differ across groups, the resulting asymmetries create spillovers that affect the entire marriage market. The model provides a framework to understand how openness—or discrimination—shapes family formation, cultural preservation, and long-term educational dynamics in multi-ethnic societies.
"Changes in Time Allocation due to Unilateral Divorce, Evidence from Mexico" with Ana Melissa Perez.
Abstract:
Unilateral divorce could impact how households allocate their time due to changes in bargaining power. This paper uses data from Mexico to analyze the impact of unilateral divorce on married couples. Using the exogenous variation by states in the unilateral divorce implementation, and data from the time allocation survey ENUT and the labor panel ENOE, we find evidence that married women decrease the time dedicated to caring for their kids. This effect is not driven by increasing the demand for domestic labor or having fewer children in the household. We complement the empirical analysis with a theoretical model that, under specific conditions, replicates the observed reduction in women's caregiving time in response to changes in the divorce regime.
"Salience, Norms, and Intimate Partner Violence: Evidence from the 2003 Dominican Banking Crisis"
Abstract:
I use the 2003 collapse of Banco Intercontinental — the third-largest bank in the Dominican Republic and the country's most-covered economic event of the decade — as identifying variation for the effect of a salient macroeconomic shock on intimate-partner-violence norms. Combining four DHS waves (1999–2013) with a Bartik exposure measure built from 2002 Censo pre-crisis financial-sector employment shares, I estimate that a one-standard-deviation increase in pre-crisis exposure raises post-2003 IPV justification by 2.2 percentage points, a 16% relative increase against the 2002 mean. The effect concentrates in the two metropolitan provinces where the crisis registered both economically and in news coverage, and propagates across all marital sub-samples — including women never in union, whose attitudes cannot reflect intra-household renegotiation. A novel salience corpus, scraped from the Wayback Machine archive of Listín Diario, identifies the propagation pathway. The pattern is consistent with the gender-identity mechanism of Akerlof and Kranton (2000) and Tur-Prats (2021), in which a shock to the male-breadwinner role raises the cultural acceptability of violence in male-breadwinner cultures, and inconsistent with the relative-outside-options channel that has dominated the recent IPV–economic-shocks literature.
"Dynamic co-movements between energy consumption and economic growth. A panel data and wavelet perspective", with Werner Kristjanpoller, and Javier Scavia. (2018) Energy Economics. [paper]
Abstract:
In this study, a wavelet analysis with panel data is performed to conclude about the causality relationship between the GDP and energy consumption of 74 countries of the world, for the years 1972 to 2014. We add a frequency-domain perspective to conclude about the effects at different time periods, while the panel data analysis allows us to study different heterogeneities that may occur due to geography, GDP per capita, and human development classification. For all of the sample, there is bi-causality between electrical energy consumption and GDP in the long run, while for the short and medium run, causality is verified from GDP to electricity consumption. When segmented by continents, the results are mixed; however, when the division is done by HDI, there is bi-causality between electricity consumption and GDP for high HDI countries. In contrast, for countries with a low HDI, there is causality from electricity consumption to GDP. This poses a set of particularly important policy implications for countries with low human development.
"Short and Long-Term Dynamic Dependencies of Main Latina American Stock Indexes and Commodity Prices: A Wavelet Approach", with M.C Minutolo and Werner Kristjanpoller. (2018) Journal of Accounting and Finance. [paper]
Abstract:
Modern portfolio theory seeks to maximize returns and minimize risk through the selection of non-correlated investment instruments. Investment instruments in the portfolio are, often, non-linear and non-stationary making forecasting of returns difficult. The use of decomposition models has been found to improve the accuracy of predictive models. This paper extends modern portfolio theory by applying wavelet analysis to the Latin American stock markets in various time horizons as investment vehicles in a portfolio along with major commodity markets. The main findings reveal that different commodities are needed in the portfolio depending on the time horizon and market.
"Does education spending really accelerate growth?: A Comparison of Developed and Developing Countries", with Juan Tapia, and Lionel Valenzuela. (2017). Proceedings of EDULEARN17 Conference, Barcelona, Spain. ISBN: 978-84-697-3777-4. [paper]
Abstract:
Education is one of the most important government expenditures and is touted by many as a fundamental factor in leveling the field, overcoming inequality to achieve sustainable economic growth and prosperity. It is also a means to further opportunities for greater social development and societal well-being. In this study, World Bank's information spanning from 1972 to 2011 is used, and the premise of education's role in economic growth is tested by studying Granger's causality of education spending in both developed and developing countries. While countries with high growth rates invest more in education, such increased educational spending does neither imply nor determine necessarily an increased growth. This result sheds doubts on the efficacy of government spending in education and its role in the economic growth of nations. The work presented aims to contribute from the public policy perspective, leaving open the possibilities for future, more disaggregated studies on this subject.
"Relación entre el dólar, el precio del cobre y el IPSA en distintas escalas de tiempo: una aproximación a través de wavelet" con Werner Kristjanpoller (2014), Economía Chilena. [paper].
Abstract:
En este estudio se analiza la relación de causalidad para diferentes plazos de tres variables relevantes de la economía Chilena: el tipo de cambio peso dólar el precio del cobre y el índice de precios selectivos de acciones IPSA. Para ello se realiza una descomposición mediante la transformada de wavelet con filtro Daubechies y prueba de Granger no lineal. Se pudo comprobar que los resultados que se obtienen con las series completas son diferentes a cuando se descomponen en diferentes escalas de tiempo. En general existe causalidad a la Granger bidireccional solo en el largo plazo pero en el corto plazo los resultados dependen del par de variables analizadas.
"Effects of incorporating multidimensional poverty indicators on public policy beneficiaries: Preferential School Subsidy in Chile " with Juan Tapia, under review in Poverty & Public Policy. [paper].
Abstract:
Understanding poverty is not only related to the lack of certain goods or services. A multidimensional poverty measurement that complements the income-based one has been implemented in Chile. This new methodology should challenge the focus on social politics and may include people who show vulnerability in several areas affecting their quality of life. In this respect, the objective of this work is to analyze the impact of the multidimentional measurement over chilean educational subsidy’s beneficiary groups. The research estimates the selected student group characterization by using a multidimensional poberty criteria. This kind of analysis involve both quantitative and qualitative. This work shows current criteria well related to the income level and a multidimensional criterion that generates a strong decrease at the number of selected people, so it is recomended a complement between a multidimensional criterion and one about the income.