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Welcome! I am a Ph.D. Candidate in Economics at UC Berkeley. My main research interests are in international macroeconomics and finance with a focus on emerging economies. You can find my CV here.
Before starting my Ph.D., I worked for two years as a research assistant at Banco Central de Costa Rica. I hold two bachelor's degrees from Universidad de Costa Rica: one in Economics, obtained in 2020, and the other in Actuarial Science, obtained in 2017.
Contact: alfredo_mendoza@berkeley.edu
WORKING PAPERS
Do Central Banks Follow the Fed? (Job Market Paper, see PDF)
Co-author: Serra Pelin
Abstract: We study how central banks respond to U.S. monetary shocks. Using a newly constructed dataset on monetary policy meetings (the MPM-dataset), we show that emerging market (EME) central banks systematically move in tandem with the Fed, whereas advanced economy central banks do not. We attribute this heterogeneity to the asymmetric spillovers of U.S. monetary policy on firms’ marginal costs. A three-bloc open-economy New Keynesian model with dominant currency pricing and partial debt dollarization reproduces these empirical patterns, highlighting that EME responses stem from the immediate impact of Fed shocks on exchange rates and, in turn, on marginal costs.
The Emerging Market Great Moderation (see PDF)
Co-author: Timothy Meyer
Abstract: We document a Great Moderation in emerging markets, a dramatic fall in aggregate macroeconomic volatility by about 40%, without changes in other distinctive characteristics of emerging market business cycles. Using a novel methodology, we link the moderation to canonical emerging market business cycle theories. Consistent with those theories, the contribution of fluctuations in the growth trend is substantial, and has not diminished. The moderation resulted in important welfare gains in emerging economies and stems from a reduction in country-specific volatility, which can be linked to shifts in monetary policy.
PUBLICATIONS
Pre-Ph.D. work
"Microdata Evidence of Incomplete Monetary Policy Transmission in a Non-Competitive Banking Sector: The Case of Costa Rica" (with José Pablo Barquero and Kerry Loaiza), Banco Central de Costa Rica working paper 04-2021, April 2021
"Demographic Modeling Via 3-Dimensional Markov Chains" (with Juan José Víquez-Rodríguez, Alexander Campos-Méndez, Jorge Loría-Solorzano, and Jorge Víquez-Bolaños), Revista de Matemática, Teoría y Aplicaciones, July 2018.
TEACHING
UC Berkeley
ECON 101B: Intermediate Macroeconomics (Spring 2025, taught by Yuriy Gorodnichenko): This course builds a model to analyze business cycle fluctuations. The model is based loosely on the dynamic maximization problems faced by firms and consumers, and it is applied to real world events to learn more about how policy-makers can adequately respond to economic fluctuations.
ECON 165: Money and Banking (Fall 2024, taught by John Nelson-Mondragon): This course explores money, financial institutions, financial markets, central banking, the real economy, and the interactions between these topics.
ECON 191: Economic Research for Undergraduates (Fall 2022 and Spring 2023; taught by Benjamin Schoefer and Ben Handel, respectively): This class provides a structure for students to write an original research paper in Economics, while exposing them to frontier research by professors of the Department of Economics at UC Berkeley.
ECON 134: Macroeconomic Policy from the Great Depression to Today (Spring 2022, taught by Yuriy Gorodnichenko): This course analyzes current macroeconomic challenges and policy responses in the United States and other countries through the lens of modern macroeconomics and economic history. It includes an in-depth look at key macroeconomic policy issues, such as the impact of monetary and fiscal policy, and the causes and effects of financial crises.
ECON 181: International Trade (Fall 2021, taught by Thibault Fally): This course introduces students to core concepts in International Trade (e.g., comparative advantage, tariffs, iceberg costs, etc).
Universidad de Costa Rica
CA 304: Fundamentals of Risk and Insurance (Fall 2019, instructor): This class introduces the student to the fundamentals of risk from a microeconomic perspective. Statistical techniques to estimate the distribution of aggregate risks in insurance are covered in-depth.
CA 201: Mathematical Theory of Interest Rates (Fall 2018, instructor): This class covers the fundamentals of actuarial pricing of credit and financial instruments: discounted cash flows, valuation of projects, loans, no arbitrage, and yield curve estimation.
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