Benjamín Villena Roldán

• Dec 22, 2025: I participated in the 7th PUC Alumni Workshop. This time I presented the preliminary results of our paper "Remote Work and Wages: Disentangling Demand and Supply Influences"

• Dec 19, 2025: A new column on Ex-Ante on the need for realistic evaluation of recent economic reforms concerning the labor market.

• Dec 18, 2025: Emol quoted my comments on the newest Monetary Policy Report (IPOM) of the Central Bank of Chile in December 2025. 

• Dec 3, 2025: Interviewed in Radio Agricultura on the new developments of the labor market in Chile and economic reforms needed to foster economic growth.

• Dec 2-3, 2025: We had our third Workshop of our ANID Nucleo "Labor Market Mismatch, Causes and Consequences". A great conference with excellent presentations of all participants, especially our keynote speaker Ben Schoefer and Kate Weisshaar. I also had an opportunity to present a preliminary version of our paper "Remote Work and Wages: Disentangling Demand and Supply Influences"

• Nov 14, 2025: Our paper "A Transformer-Based Intelligent System for Hierarchical Occupational Classification in the Labor Market" (with D. Cornejo, F. Vera, J. Velásquez, B. Gamboa-Labbé, and R. Ruiz) has been accepted for publication by the IEEE Open Journal of the Computer Society. This paper rigorously documents the information system and algorithms behind SABE (Sistema de Análisis de Bolsas de Empleo, "Online Job Board System Analysis"), a project we have been developing with SENCE since 2019. I hope I can post a link to the paper soon.

• Nov 12, 2025: I was interviewed by Radio Agricultura on the recent developments of the Chilean labor market, with a focus on the unemployed and people who are inactive but available to work, i.e. "the other unemployed".

• Nov 11, 2025: Some of my comments on the differences between public and private employment in Chile were portrayed in a note by El Mercurio. A LinkedIn post explains it better.

• Nov 10, 2025: Our paper "Deconstructing Job Search Behavior" has been accepted at Labour Economics. Finally! I wrote a brief summary in a LinkedIn article. 

• Nov 8, 2025: I wrote a column for Ex-Ante on "the other unemployed" in which I delve deeper into the details of this group.

• Nov 6, 2025: I gave an interview to Canal 13 about the "other unemployed."

• Nov 2, 2025: I wrote a letter to El Mercurio entitled "The other unemployed," in which I refer to non-employed individuals who do not search for a job but declare to be available to work. 

• Oct 17, 2025: I wrote a column for La Segunda entitled "Creation and destruction". I referred to the idea of creative destruction, for which the Nobel Prize gave the award to professors Aghion and Howitt.

• Oct 16-17, 2025: I presented our "Working hours policy reform: micro and macro impacts" (with M. Tejada) at the second edition of the Frontier of Macro-Labour workshop that took place in Panmure House, the historical home of Adam Smith in Edinburgh, Scotland.

• Oct 13-15, 2025: I visited the University of Bristol, UK, to spend a few days working with my long-term coauthor Sekyu Choi. We made a lot of progress in several projects of our joint research agenda.

• Oct 1, 2015: I gave a new interview to Radio Agricultura on the new developments in the Chilean labor market. I also referred to long-term reforms in our labor training system that are urgently needed.

• Sep 30, 2025: A brief comment on the new labor market data in Emol.

• Sep 27, 2025: New version of our paper "Labor Markets, Inequality, and Hiring Selectivity" jointly written with Alessandra Pizzo. Just submitted!

• Sept 17, 2025: I wrote a column for Ex-Ante on some additional ideas regarding the Central Bank's reported negative impact of minimum wages and other labor market policies in Chile.
  
  

• Sept 16, 2025: I was interviewed on Radio Agricultura on the reported impact of regulatory changes in the labor market on employment in Chile and other labor market topics.

• Sept 16, 2025: Canal 13 interviewed me to ask for my opinion on the Central Bank's report on the effect of labor market regulations in Chile.
  
  

• Sept 12, 2025: I was portrayed by a note from Emol on the report showing the discrepancy between politicians and the Central Bank's reported impact of regulatory changes in the labor market on employment in Chile. Here is also a LinkedIn article in which I expanded my original comment.

• Sept 9, 2025: I presented our paper "Working hours policy reform: micro and macro impacts" (with M. Tejada) in the cycle "Ciencia que Incide" (Science that Matters) organized by the Faculty of Economics and Business, Universidad Andres Bello.
  
  

• Sept 5, 2025: I commented on the CAF Annual Report of Local Governments in Latin America and the Caribbean at the 2025 SECHI Meeting. I also presented our paper "Local government investment networks" (joint with P. Valdivieso)

• Sept 4, 2025: My coauthor Felipe Rodriguez presented at the session of SECHI (Chilean Economic Society) our paper "Labor Market Adjustment after a Supply Side Shock: Evidence from COVID-19". The meeting this year was in Arica, the northern extreme of Chile, being hosted by Universidad de Tarapacá.

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