Research and Climate Policy

“Preference for Flexibility and Dynamic Consistency with Incomplete Preferences” (with Gil Riella), Theory and Decision, Nr. 90, p.171–181, 2021.

Policy Instruments

National Plan for Financial Protection against Disasters in Mozambique (Lead author. With Mozambique Ministry of Economy and Finance and National Institute for Disaster Risk Management and Reduction), approved in June 2022.

Risk Assessment for the Civil Defense and Protection Plan of the Santa Catarina State, Brazil. (with Schadeck, R.; et al), Santa Catarina State Government and FAPESC, approved in April 2023. 

Data-driven systems mapping: energy transitions and the Sustainable Development Goals in Brazil (with Pete Barbrook-Johnson)

This project investigates the potential for synergies and the possibility of trade-offs between diversifying green energy and achieving other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Brazil. We use a range of network estimation methods  (e.g. correlation thresholding, PC algorithm, CCM, and IOTA) to map networks of SDG indicators and apply objective and subjective network analysis to interpret the maps and obtain policy relevant insights.

The Heterogeneous Effects of Reelection Incentives: Evidence from Brazil (draft available upon request)

Water scarcity in the Brazilian Semiarid area causes negative short and long-terms impacts on well-being and on a range of health and socio-economic outcomes of children and adults. Several interventions have been implemented in the region to mitigate the effects of droughts. In this paper I study how political institutions affect policies targeting dry areas in the Northern Brazil. Specifically, I investigate the relationship between career concerns of incumbent mayors and the provision of public goods targeting groups vulnerable to droughts. I exploit close elections in a regression discontinuity design to estimate the effects of reelection incentives on the provision of public water wells, conditional on measures of precipitation. I find that the provision of water wells in municipalities with first-term mayors is higher on average than in cities where mayors face term limits, as long as the frequency of dry years is sufficiently high.

Gender Gaps in Parliament: Access to Public Funds by Legislators in Brazil   (Job Market Paper - draft available upon request)

Women’s representation in national parliaments has been increasing at a slow pace. Besides facing barriers to entry into politics, once in office women have slower career progression than men. This paper (i) documents gender gaps in access to public funds strategically used by incumbent legislators for reelection purposes in Brazil and (ii) studies the role of political parties in explaining these gaps. I exploit party switching in Brazil’s multiparty system and estimate a two-way fixed effect model to decompose the gender gaps into components attributable to party and individual heterogeneity. I find that selection into high support parties can play a distributive role and partially offset disadvantages in individual influence of women. This pattern of negative assortative matching is correlated to ideology. The large increase in the gender gap after 2015 is mainly explained by the loss of individual influence of women in left wing parties, but this deterioration was partially compensated by high levels of party support.