Abstract: While annuities provide longevity insurance by offering a steady income in retirement, many pension systems around the world have shifted toward lump-sum withdrawals, exposing individuals to longevity and financial risk. Empirical evidence on the consequences of this shift remains limited. This project estimates the causal effect of annuitizing pension savings on post-retirement outcomes such as mortality, entrepreneurship, and reliance on government assistance. I exploit an institutional rule in Colombia’s private pension system, where workers are assigned to a specific payout type—either an annuity or a lump-sum—based on whether their accumulated savings exceed a threshold tied to the statutory minimum wage. Because this threshold varies annually and cannot be influenced by individual behavior, it generates quasi-random variation in payout assignment. Using a fuzzy regression discontinuity design and confidential administrative data on over 600,000 retirees, I isolate the effect of receiving an annuity versus a lump-sum, providing new evidence on how pension payout form shapes later-life well-being.

Abstract: We study how local economies in the United States respond to population aging. Using variation in the share of residents above retirement age across commuting zones, we document a set of empirical patterns: aging is associated with shifts in population, employment, wages, and the mobility of both younger and older cohorts. These correlations are puzzling in the context of a standard spatial equilibrium model in which retirees exit the labor force but continue to demand local goods and services. We show that incorporating housing markets and local amenities into the framework helps reconcile the evidence. Consistent with this extended model, we find that aging is strongly correlated with lower housing supply, stricter local land-use regulation, and more conservative political values. Together, these results highlight the role of housing and regulation in mediating the local economic consequences of demographic change.

Abstract: Most pension systems establish specific age thresholds that entail changes in the financial incentives to retire. These key retirement ages may themselves become reference points that influence the decision to retire beyond the effect of purely financial incentives. A growing literature has started to call attention to the relevance of these labeled key retirement ages. It is still unclear, however, how large the impact of these reference points is relative to underlying changes in financial incentives. Addressing this question is challenging since it is hard to find sources of variation that separately identify the effect of labelled retirement ages from the effect of financial incentives, as these usually vary together. This paper leverages the unique structure of the Colombian private pension system to address this challenge. I exploit the fact that workers in a specific pension pathway respond to labeled retirement ages even when these are not accompanied by financial incentives. I compare this response to those of workers in pension pathways where retirement ages and financial incentives vary together, enabling an estimation of the relative magnitudes of these effects. The findings provide new evidence on the extent to which labeled retirement ages independently shape retirement behavior. 

Abstract: This paper examines how forced displacement shapes youth human capital and development. We use data from a longitudinal study of  about 2,500 youth from three groups in Colombia---Venezuelan migrants, internally displaced Colombians, and non-displaced Colombians--to analyze developmental gaps between these groups that relate to physical and mental health, and cognitive and socioemotional skills. The results reveal substantial and persistent well-being gaps associated with forced displacement. Furthermore, the type of forced displacement influences both the nature and magnitude of these gaps. Compared to the non-displaced group, Venezuelan migrants---who were displaced by a humanitarian and socioeconomic crisis---exhibit larger deficits in cognitive and physical development. Colombians who were internally displaced by armed conflict, or were born into previously displaced families, face greater challenges related to mental health and socioemotional skills. Service access, particularly through regularization programs that offer resources and temporary labor market participation, can narrow these gaps. Our results emphasize the importance of integration for displaced families to support human capital accumulation and end the intergenerational transmission of poverty linked to forced displacement.

Abstract: This article investigates the effects of female immigration to the Dominican Republic (DR)—most of which is from Haiti and of low-education levels—on the labor supply of native women. Using individual-level data for 2003–2016 and exploiting geographic variation in early immigrant settlements together with time variation in female immigration inflows, we find that female immigration has led to disparate outcomes across women of different education levels and family structures. In line with the evidence from developed countries, female immigration to the DR is associated with an increase in the hours worked by highly educated native women with family dependents (relative to equally educated women without dependents). However, for low-educated native women, female immigration is associated with a decrease in hours worked and in earnings. Our results underscore the importance of studying the disparate effects of migration on vulnerable groups in developing countries

Abstract: We examine patterns of economic growth and social progress across Colombian “functional territories.” Unlike political or administrative divisions, which often arise for historical reasons unrelated to economic interactions, functional territories reflect the underlying patterns of spatial agglomeration and economic linkages within a region. Using a novel definition of functional territories, our analysis reveals substantial fragmentation: nearly 66% of municipalities—home to about 20% of the national population—have no significant economic ties to neighboring areas. A comparatively more integrated set of municipalities, though still only partially connected, forms a “rural–urban” space that accounts for roughly 31% of the population. The remainder of Colombians reside in “urban” or “metropolitan” clusters that are larger, more densely populated, and more interconnected. We analyze these territories along two dimensions: economic growth, or “dynamism,” and social progress, or “inclusion.” To guide this analysis, we propose a simple conceptual framework that organizes the diverse inputs shaping these outcomes. Larger and more urbanized agglomerations show clear advantages in these inputs, and long-run institutional factors provide the best explanation for differences across territories. Consistent with this, larger and more urbanized areas achieve stronger outcomes, particularly in economic activity. Moreover, dynamic territories tend also to be more inclusive, although recent gains in dynamism are not strongly correlated with improvements in inclusion.

Abstract: The delimitation of functional spatial units or functional territories is an important topic in regional science and economic geography, since the empirical verification of many causal relationships is affected by the size and shape of these areas. This paper proposes a two-step method for the delimitation of functional territories and presents an application for three developing countries: Mexico, Colombia and Chile. The first step of this method uses nighttime satellite images to identify the boundaries of urban continuums (conurbations). When these continuums extend over more than one municipality, we group and redefine them as a new single spatial unit. The second step calculates a dissimilarity index using bidirectional labor-commuting flows between the resulting areas of the first step and then applies a standard clustering procedure to delineate the definitive functional territories. Our results suggest that, using nighttime satellite images, our method can lead to a more accurate definition of functional territories, especially in developing or underdeveloped countries where the official data on labor-commuting flows are often outdated or unreliable.