I am a Postdoctoral Associate at Yale University, interested in urban economics and North American economic history, often on questions at the intersection of these two fields. My research focuses on how public policy shapes the communities where it is implemented, for both the people who live there and the neighborhoods themselves. I am currently working on projects that study the long-run consequences of displacement caused by infrastructure projects in the U.S., how the New Deal shaped the distribution of economic activity across the U.S., the consequences of slum clearance programs in Chile, and the formation of immigrant enclaves in Canada.

Displacement and Infrastructure Provision: Evidence from the Interstate Highway System (Job Market Paper)

Abstract: This paper studies the long-run effects of the Interstate Highway System on displaced individuals and their neighbors. I identify individuals in the 1950 census living in homes later destroyed by construction and those living near the constructed highway, and link them to administrative mortality records. Displaced individuals die younger and move to worse neighborhoods within the city, relative to comparable neighbors living farther from the highway (100 to 200 meters away). Longevity also declines among those living adjacent to the highway (within100meters). The cost of re

Making Public Works Work: Long-Run Evidence from the Works Progress Administration (with Allison Green and Kaan Cankat)

Abstract: We study the long-run consequences of public works projects, in which the government directly employs workers, on the receiving economies. Using newly constructed data for the Works Progress Administration, the largest New Deal program, which employed more than 9 million workers between 1935 and 1943, we measure how WPA funds shaped employment and the industrial mix of local economies. To separate spending from Depression severity, we study contiguous counties located between WPA districts, the program’s lowest-level administrative units responsible for submitting and administering projects, with varying discretionary spending. Higher spending raised WPA employment without crowding out private employment. We also find no evidence that WPA employment increased private wages. We find evidence that the WPA helped transition from agriculture to the retail and service sectors.

 In-Situ versus Relocation: The Welfare Consequences of Slum Clearances on Urban Development (with Fernanda Rojas-Ampuero)

Abstract: How do relocation and in-situ upgrading of slums affect urban development, segregation, and welfare? We study Santiago’s Program for Urban Marginality (1979–1984), which affected more than 50,000 slum households, 5% of the city, either relocating them to peripheral public housing or redeveloping their settlements on site. We build a harmonized census-tract panel from full-count censuses (1982–2002), digitized slum censuses, public housing records, and historical home prices. We develop a quantitative spatial model that includes formal, informal, and public housing, and endogenous amenities that generate Schelling-type sorting. Preliminary findings suggest population decline in neighborhoods where a slum is upgraded, regardless of whether the intervention was an in-situ upgrade or a relocation to the city’s fringe.

Immigrant Enclave Formation: Evidence from Canadian Cities (with Pierre-Loup Beauregard and Vedran Razmilic)

Abstract: We analyze the formation of immigrant enclaves in Canada. We develop a quantitative model of internal city structure in which forward-looking individuals choose where to live and work at every period. We allow for heterogeneous preferences over endogenous amenities depending on immigration status. We exploit Canadian administrative tax files and estimate group-specific neighborhood valuation using a revealed preference approach. By exploiting the neighborhood-to-neighborhood transition of households in Canada, we document that the correlation of neighborhood valuations between foreign- and Canadian-born households is positive but far from unity. We then analyze counterfactual scenarios where households have the same preferences regardless of nationality and study the implications for income and urban segregation.

Neighborhood Evolution and Infrastructure Provision

Abstract: This paper examines the long-run socioeconomic impact of highway construction on U.S. neighborhoods. I construct a balanced panel of neighborhood-level characteristics from 1930 to 2020 for 62 metropolitan areas by combining data from historical census records and decennial censuses. Neighborhood-level aggregates for 1930 and 1940 are created by geocoding address-level information from historical files and then aggregating the data to match census tract boundaries. Using a matched difference-in-differences design, I find that highway construction reduces the total population of neighborhoods. The effects are driven by a relative decline in the Black population, with no significant effect on the white population. There is no evidence of changes in rents, but homeownership rates decrease following highway construction. The analysis suggests that these effects are more pronounced in suburban areas and in neighborhoods with a low initial share of Black residents. Additionally, I find evidence of spillover effects on adjacent neighborhoods.

• Runner-up Nevins Dissertation Prize for best dissertation in Canadian and American Economic History, Economic History Association 2025
• Frank Lewis Memorial Prize for Best Student Paper, Canadian Network of Economic History, 2025
• Dissertation Award, Transportation and Public Utilities Group, 2025
• Best Student Paper Prize, North American meeting of the Urban Economics Association, 2024
• Sokoloff Dissertation Fellowship, Economic History Association, 2024
• AD Scott Fellowship in Economics, UBC, 2023
• University Press Early Dissertation Fellowship, Economic History Association, 2023
• President’s Academic Excellence Initiative Ph.D. Award, UBC, 2020 – 2024
• Teaching Assistant Excellence Award, PUC, 2016
• Highest GPA in business and economics, PUC, 2015

Selected:

• Advanced International Trade, UBC
• Wealth and Poverty of Nations, UBC
• Introduction to Economic Research, UBC
• Introduction to Economics, UBC
• Graduate Contract Theory, PUC
• Graduate Mathematical Economics, PUC
• MBA General Management and Strategy, PUC