I am a PhD candidate in Economics at the University of British Columbia (UBC). My fields of interest are Development and Urban Economics. My research examines how public policies affect economic opportunities for low-income families and shape the accessibility of cities worldwide.

In my job market paper, I study the long-term impacts of public housing. Drawing causal evidence from Brazil’s large-scale program, I show that the policy leads to modest employment declines among adults but can still promote substantial intergenerational mobility for children when directed at the most vulnerable and located in neighborhoods with stronger educational opportunities.

I expect to graduate in the spring of 2026 and will be available for interviews in the 2025-2026 job market.

Job Market Paper

Subsidized Housing and Intergenerational Mobility: Evidence from Brazil

Abstract: Housing assistance programs are among the most widely used policies to provide affordable housing to low-income families worldwide. In this paper, we study a large-scale subsidized housing program in Brazil and estimate its effects on individuals who received their homes as adults and those who were exposed as children. We find that adult beneficiaries
experience small declines in formal employment. Unlike in other settings, these effects are not driven by spatial isolation, but are instead consistent with modest income effects. In contrast, the impacts on children are large and transformative. Those who receive subsidized housing at age 11 are 22 percent more likely to hold a formal job at age 25 than those who receive their homes at age 18 or older. These gains are concentrated among children of the poorest families and are driven by the proximity to high-quality schools.

Publications

Efficiency and Equity of Input Subsidies: Experimental Evidence from Tanzania (with Xavier Giné, Shreena Patel, and Ildrim Valley, published in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics in 2022)

Abstract: Input subsidy programs (ISP) often have two conflicting targeting goals: selecting individuals with the highest marginal return to inputs on efficiency grounds, or the poorest individuals on equity grounds, allowing for a secondary market to restore efficiency gains. To study this targeting dilemma, we implement a field experiment where beneficiaries of an ISP were selected via a lottery or a local committee. In lottery villages, we find evidence of displacement of private fertilizer and of a secondary market as beneficiaries are more likely to sell inputs to non-beneficiaries. In contrast, in non-lottery villages we find no evidence of displacement nor of elite capture. The impacts of the ISP on agricultural productivity and welfare are limited, suggesting that resources should be directed at complementary investments, such as improving soil quality and irrigation.

Work in Progress (Abstracts and Links not Available)

Accessibility, City size, and Economic Development (with Prottoy Akbar, Victor Couture, Gilles Duranton, and Adam Storeygard)

Making Job Training Work For the Youth (with Xavier Giné, Alejandro de la Fuente, and Meritxell Martinez)

Standardization and Simplification of Credit Card Statements: Evidence From a Lab Experiment (with Edgar G. Cortés, Paúl A. de la Cruz, Xavier Giné, Pedro Giovanni León-Nájera, and José Luis Negrin)

• Graduate Fellowship in Gambling Research, British Columbia Lottery Corporation, 2024.
• Four Year Doctoral Fellowship (4YF). University of British Columbia, 2020-2023.
• CAPES scholarship for graduate students, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), 2015-2017.
• Best summer article written by Economics MA student, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), 2016.

Grants

• University of British Columbia (UBC), Faculty of Arts Graduate Student Research Award, 2025.
• Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA), with Gabriel L. Mariante, 2024.
• International Growth Center (IGC), with Prottoy Akbar, Victor Couture, Gilles Duranton, and Adam Storeygard, 2023.
• Center for Innovative Data in Economic Research (CIDER), with Prottoy Akbar, Victor Couture, Gilles Duranton, and Adam Storeygard, 2023.