Benjamín Villena Roldán
I am an Associate Professor at the Institute for Economic Policies, Universidad Andres Bello (Santiago, Chile).
My current research interests are Macroeconomics, Labor Economics, and Political Economy.
Here you can find my C.V.
I am a principal researcher in the Nucleus LM2C2 (Labor Market Mismatch: Causes and Consequences) and an adjunct researcher of the MIPP (Millenium Institute on Market Imperfections and Public Policy)
I am also co-director of the SABE project (Sistema de Análisis de Bolsas de Empleo), which gathers and harmonizes real-time data from job ads and applicants from multiple online job boards in Chile and classify demand and supply side into occupations using machine learning techniques.
These are profiles in: Google Scholar, RePeC, SSRN, Research Gate, ORCID, Scopus.
Contact: benjamin (at) benjaminvillena.com
News
Oct 7, 2024: Column in La Tercera on legal holidays and productivity.
Oct 1, 2024: Interview in CNN Chile on the current situation of labor informality in Chile.
Oct 1, 2024: Featured in Publimetro and La Segunda on the recently released unemployment data in Chile.
Sept 27, 2024: Note in La Tercera with my opinions on the causes of youth unemployment.
Sept 26-27, I co-organized the XXVI Workshop in International Economics and Finance, a joint effort by Universidad Andres Bello, Central Bank of Chile, Universidad Torcuato di Tella, World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, and Becker Friedman Institute.
Sept 25, 2025: My new column on reducing legal holidays to increase vacation days in La Segunda.
Sept 10, 2024: I gave a brief talk at a joint seminar given by Fundación Grandes and the Institute for Public Policies (IPP) UNAB on the integenerational integration at work.
Sept 6, 2024: I presented our paper "Working hours policy reform: micro and macro impacts" (with M. Tejada) at the Society of Chilean Economists Annual Meeting in Concepción, Chile.
Sept 2, 2024: Portrayed in a note in Publimetro on the surpringing IMACEC (monthly proxy GDP) of July 2024.
Aug 30, 2024: Portayed in a note in Publimetro (here too) about the evolution of employment in Chile.
Aug 24, 2024: I was portrayed in a note in Emol about tipping for waiters and other workers, the potential regulations, and consequences.
July 25, 2024: As a co-director I'm proud of launching the new platform of SABE, Online Job Board Analysis System (Sistema de Análisis de Bolsas de Empleo in Spanish) a joint effort on WIC, ISCI, SENCE and OTIC SOFOFA. I was the moderator of a panel of experts from academia, industry, and government during the event, available in Youtube.
July 24, 2024: Interview in La Tercera on the recent minimum wage raise in Chile. (PDF)
July 24, 2024: We launched a Call for papers for the Second Workshop in Poly Evaluation to be held in Santiago Chile, on October 29-30. Our keynote speaker this year is Professor Gordon Dahl (UCSD). For more information, please visit this website.
July 24, 2024: Interview in La Tercera on the causes, consequences, and policy challenges associated with the accelerated population aging in Chile. (PDF)
July 20, 2024: Column on the relation between labor informality and public policies in Ex-Ante.
July 19, 2024: We are organizing a 2024 version of the MIPP Workshop in Policy Evaluation to be held in Santinago, Chile on October 29-30, 2024. Gordon Dahl (UC San Diego) is the keynote speaker this year. If you are interested, please visit the workshop's website or just submit a paper or extended abstract to workshop.policy.evaluation@gmail.com.
July 18, 2024: I have been appointed for the fifth consecutive year as a member of the expert committee for the calculation of trend GDP in Chile, a key input for the preparation of the 2025 fiscal budget. Press release of the Ministry of Finance.
July 16, 2024: We got an invitation to revise and resubmit our paper "Deconstructing Job Search Behavior" in Labour Economics.
July 9, 2024: I wrote a letter to CIPER to assess the potential size of workers covered by the new increase of the minimum wage in Chile.
July 4, 2024: I gave an interviewed at the website El Mostrador TV on labor informality in Chile and its consequences for income stability and public policy.