About me

I am a development economist studying social protection, mental health, resilience to climate shocks, and risk and insurance. I am currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Jameel Observatory for Food Security Early Action, based at the University of Edinburgh, where I work on issues at the intersection of drought, insurance, and conflict in the Horn of Africa. In summer 2026, I was a visiting researcher at the Becker Friedman Institute at the University of Chicago. I have conducted fieldwork in my home country of Paraguay and in Kenya.

I am on the 2026–27 economics job market. My job market paper uses a field experiment with a saturation design to study an asset-building anti-poverty program run by the Paraguayan government, showing that while the program improves households’ economic outcomes, it worsens participants’ psychological well-being at midline—a decline that is attenuated where more neighbors also participate.

I received my PhD in Agricultural and Resource Economics from UC Davis in 2025. During my doctoral studies, I worked as a consultant for the World Bank.

Before entering my doctoral program, I graduated from Columbia University with a BA in Economics-Mathematics and a Concentration in Latin American and Caribbean Studies. I have also worked in Asunción as a Policy Analyst at the Secretariat of Planning for Economic and Social Development and as a Research Associate at Instituto Desarrollo. In addition, I am a long-time collaborator of OMAPA, the Paraguayan mathematical olympiads organization.