Hi! I am a researcher at NOVA School of Business and Economics. I obtained my Ph.D. in Economics at UC Berkeley in May 2025. I also hold a B.Sc in Economics from the University of São Paulo and a M.Sc in Economics from PUC-Rio.
You can contact me at robertohsurocha@berkeley.edu or roberto.hsu.rocha@novasbe.pt
CV.
Working Papers
6. The Effects of Revealing Borrowers’ Information on Credit Allocation, Defaults and Entrepreneurship, with J. Feinmann
5. Payments Under the Table: Employer-Employee Collusion in Brazil, with J. Feinmann and M. Lauletta
4. Small Children, Big Problems: Childbirth and Crime, with D. Britto, P. Pinotti and B. Sampaio (media coverage)
3. Racial Gaps in the Labor Market: The Role of Nonwhite Entrepreneurship, with M. Dias
2. Inequality and Higher Education: The Role of Elite Public Universities, with J. Feinmann - check our open data project in Javier's website! (media coverage)
1 Labor Supply Responses to Death of Family Members in the Presence of Survivors' Pensions, with J. Feinmann
Advanced Work in Progress
Equalizing the Great Equalizer: The Long-Run Consequences of School Funding Reforms, with C. Montialoux, S. Otero [Slides available under request]
Publications
3. Formalizing Microentrepreneurs through Targeted Tax Systems: Evidence from Brazil, with A. de Farias, Journal of Public Economics 2026, pre-print version
2. The relationship between Higher Education and Labor Market and Earnings in Brazilian Municipalities (pre-doctoral), with N. Menezes-Filho, B. Komatsu, and A. Oliveira - Revista Pesquisa e Planejamento Econômico PPE-IPEA, 2017. Winner of 2018 Roberto Campos Prize for Excellence in Research awarded to the best paper published in IPEA Journal’s in the previous year
1. Evaluating the Impact of Educational Policies in Sobral (pre-doctoral), with N. Menezes-Filho and B. Komatsu - Revista Economia Aplicada (2018)
Policy
Gender and Property Taxes in São Paulo, with T. Scot, D. Moura, T. Flores and J. Feinmann