"Enforcement spillovers under different networks: The case of quotas for persons with disabilities in Brazil "- with Samuel Berlinski, 2025, Journal of Development Economics
Coverage: VoxDev
"Non-cognitive peer effects in early education: The influence of children born to teenage mothers on peers' behavioral problems" - with Elena Meschi and Laura Pagani, 2024, Economics Letters
"Your Peers’ Parents: Spillovers from Parental Education" with Jane C. Fruehwirth, 2019, Economics of Education Review
This paper studies peer effects in human capital accumulation using novel data on Brazilian students' networks. I model friendship formation based on quasi-random classroom assignments and use predicted friends-of-friends' characteristics as instruments for peers' outcomes. Results show that having an additional friend graduate from high school increases a student's own graduation probability by 7.13 percent. Mechanism analyses rule out performance spillovers and information diffusion, identifying aspirations as the key channel. Friends' aspirations (i) causally affect students' own aspirations; (ii) account for most of the peer effect on school completion; and (iii) directly influence students' graduation outcomes.
Coverage: Development Impact, Folha De S. Paulo
Social Networks and Labor Market Outcomes: Occupation Matters - with Giovanna D'Adda and Giovanni Righetto
We study how the impact of social networks on labor market outcomes differs between blue-collar and white-collar workers. Using administrative data on more than thirteen million Brazilian workers and exploiting mass layoffs as a source of exogenous job loss, we show that social networks reduce unemployment duration and increase reemployment wages. These effects, however, vary systematically by occupation. Blue-collar workers rely more on networks to obtain employment quickly but capture smaller wage gains, while white-collar workers obtain larger wage premiums from their ties. We trace this divergence to occupational stability: networks tend to push blue-collar workers into different occupations, where they incur wage penalties, whereas white-collar workers are more likely to leverage networks to secure jobs that preserve or better reward their skills.
"In the Eye of the Beholder: Peers' expectations and long term educational outcomes in Brazil" (with Marcos A. Rangel)
"Air Pollution, Human Capital Accumulation, and Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from Brazil " (with Bridget Hoffmann, Marcos A. Rangel, and Diego A. Vera-Cossio)
"Evaluating the take-up of digital programs: Evidence from a debt relief program in Brazil" (with Lucas A. Mariani, Daniel Grimaldi, Jose Renato Ornerlas, and Diego Vera-Cossio)
"Health Inequality: A Tale of Expansion and Fragmentation" (with Samuel Berlinski and Marcos Vera-Hernandes) In The Inter-American Development Bank's report "The inequality crisis"
"Universal Basic Income: How the experience in developing countries can inform the discussion in South Africa", ERSA's discussion document, 2022
"Importance of employment programs for the youth in South Africa" (with Michelle Pleace), ERSA's discussion document, 2023
"Words Can Hurt: How Political Communication Can Change the Pace of an Epidemic" - with Lucas A. Mariani and Paula Rettl, 2020, Covid Economics
Coverage (in Portuguese): O Globo, CNN Brazil, Jovem Pan