Research Papers

Structural Change and Development

• “The Stable Transformation Path.” with Francisco J. Buera, Marti Mestieri, and Daniel O’Connor, 2024 Online Appendix
• “Melitz Meets Lewis: The Impacts of Roads on Structural Transformation and Businesses” with Jianyu Will Lu, Wei Qian, and Lixia Ren, 2024, revision requested at the Journal of International Economics 
• “Skill-Biased Structural Change.’’ with Francisco J. Buera, Richard Rogerson, and Juan I. Vizcaino, Review of Economic Studies, 89 (March 2022): 592–625  Online Appendix
• “Quantifying the Growth in Services: the Role of Skills, Scale, and Female Labor Supply.’’ with Francisco J. Buera and Kent Zhao, Journal of Human Capital, 57 (Summer 2019): 157-187
•  “The Rise of the Service Economy.” with Francisco J. Buera, American Economic Review, 102 (October 2012): 2540-69
•  “Finance and Development: A Tale of Two Sectors”, with Francisco J. Buera and Yongseok Shin, American Economic Review, 101 (August 2011): 1964-2002
•  “Scale and the Origins of Structural Change.” with Francisco J. Buera, Journal of Economic Theory, 147 (March 2012): 684-712
• “Can Traditional Theories of Structural Change Fit the Data?” with Francisco J. Buera, Journal of the European Economic Association 7 (April 2009): 469-477

Finance, Entrepreneurship, and Development

• “How Important are Indivisibilities for Development? Experimental Evidence from Uganda?” with Molly Lipscomb, Virgiliu Midrigan, and Carolyn Pelnik, 2024, revision requested at the Journal of Political Economy, Online Appendix
• “Financing Costs and Development.” with Tiago Cavalcanti, Bruno Martin, and Cezar Santos, 2024, revision requested at the American Economic Review, Online Appendix
• “Crisis Credit, Employment Protection, Indebtedness, and Risk” with Federico Huneeus, Mauricio Larrain, Sergio JL Schmukler, and Mario Vera, 2024, resubmitted to the American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics,  Online Appendix
• “Capitalizing Village Economies.“ with Wyatt Brooks and Danice Guzman, 2024
• “The Macroeconomics of Microfinance.” with Francisco J. Buera and Yongseok Shin, Review of Economic Studies, 88 (January 2021): 126–161
• “Can Self-Help Groups Really be ‘Self-Help’?”  with Brian Greaney and Eva Van Leemput, Review of Economic Studies, 83 (October 2016): 1614-1644  Appendix
•  “Taking Stock of the Evidence on Micro-Financial Interventions.” with Francisco J. Buera and Yongseok Shin, in NBER book, The Economics of Asset Accumulation and Poverty Traps, edited by Christopher Barrett, Michael Carter, and Jean-Paul Chavas, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), 2019
• “Entrepreneurship and Financial Frictions: A Macro-Development Perspective.” with Francisco J. Buera and Yongseok Shin, Annual Review of Economics, 7 (August 2015): 409-436
• “The Aggregate Impact of Household Saving and Borrowing Constraints: Designing a Field Experiment in Uganda.” with Molly Lipscomb and Virgiliu Midrigan, American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, 104(May 2014): 171-176
• “Macro-Perspective on Asset Grant Programs: Occupational and Wealth Mobility.” with Francisco J. Buera and Yongseok Shin, American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, 104(May 2014): 159-164
• “The Impact of Credit on Village Economies.” with Robert M. Townsend, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, (April 2012): 98-133
• “A Structural Evaluation of a Large-Scale Quasi-Experimental Microfinance Initiative.” with Robert M. Townsend, Econometrica, 79 (September 2011): 1357-1406
•  “Finance and Development: A Tale of Two Sectors”, with Francisco J. Buera and Yongseok Shin, American Economic Review, 101 (August 2011): 1964-2002
• “Policies and Impacts: An Analysis of Village-Level Microfinance Institutions.” with Robert M. Townsend, Journal of the European Economic Association 3 (March 2005): 1-50

Market Power and Development:

• “Outsourcing Policy and Worker Outcomes: Causal Evidence from a Mexican Ban” with Alejandro Estefan, Roberto Gerhard, Illenin O. Kondo, and Wei Qian, 2024, Online Appendix
• “Big Fish in Thin Markets: Competing with the Middlemen to Increase Market Access in the Amazon.” with Viva Bartkus, Wyatt Brooks, and Carolyn Pelnik, Journal of Development Economics, 155 (March 2022): 102757
• “Growth Policy, Agglomeration, and (the Lack of) Competition.” with Wyatt Brooks and Yao Amber Li, American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 13 (October 2021): 483-519  Appendix
• “Infrastructure Investment and Labor Monopsony Power.” with Wyatt J. Brooks, Illenin Kondo, Yao Amber Li, and Wei Qian,  IMF Economic Review, 69 (August 2021): 470-504 
• “Exploitation of Labor? Classical Monopsony Power and Labor’s Share.” with Wyatt Brooks, Yao Amber Li, and Wei Qian,  Journal of Development Economics 150 (May 2021): 102627

International Trade: Trade Flows and Pricing

• “Microeconomic Uncertainty, International Trade, and Aggregate Fluctuations.” with George Alessandria, Horag Choi, and Virgiliu Midrigan, Journal of Monetary Economics, 69 (January 2015): 20-38
• “Trade Wedges, Inventories, and International Business Cycles.” with George Alessandria and Virgiliu Midrigan, Journal of Monetary Economics, 60 (January 2013): 1-20
• “U.S. Trade and Inventory Dynamics.” with George Alessandria and Virgiliu Midrigan, American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, 101(May 2011): 303-307
•  “Pricing to Market and the Failure of Absolute PPP.” with George Alessandria, American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 3 (January 2011): 91-127
•  “Inventories, Lumpy Trade and Large Devaluations.” with George Alessandria and Virgiliu Midrigan, American Economic Review, 100 (December 2010): 2304–39
• “The Great Trade Collapse of 2008-09: An Inventory Adjustment?” with George Alessandria and Virgiliu Midrigan, IMF Economic Review, 58 (September 2010): 254-294

Education, Technological Change, and Development

• “Skill-Biased Structural Change.’’ with Francisco J. Buera, Richard Rogerson, and Juan I. Vizcaino, Review of Economic Studies, forthcoming  Online Appendix
• “Quantifying the Growth in Services: the Role of Skills, Scale, and Female Labor Supply.’’ with Francisco J. Buera and Kent Zhao, Journal of Human Capital, 57 (Summer 2019): 157-187
• “Technological Endowments and the Returns to Skill: New Evidence from the American Past.” with Trevon Logan, Journal of Human Capital, 5 (Summer 2011): 111-152
• “Education, Sectoral Composition, and Growth. ”  Review of Economic Dynamics, 12 (January 2009) 168-182
• “Factor Price Uncertainty, Technology Choice and Investment Delay. ” Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 29 (March 2005): 509-527
• “Explaining Returns to Schooling and Output Across Countries.”, 2007
• “Supply Factors and the Mid-Century Fall in the Skill Premium.”, 2005

Review Articles

• “New Views of Structural Transformation: Insights from Recent Literature.“ with Doug Gollin, Oxford Development Studies, (December 2023)
• “Financial frictions, financial market development, and macroeconomic development.” (2021 STEG pathfinding paper), Oxford Development Studies, (December 2023)
• “From Micro to Macro Development.” with Francisco J. Buera and Robert M. Townsend, 2023, Journal of Economic Literature, 61 (June 2023): 471-503
•  “Taking Stock of the Evidence on Micro-Financial Interventions.” with Francisco J. Buera and Yongseok Shin, in NBER book, The Economics of Asset Accumulation and Poverty Traps, edited by Christopher Barrett, Michael Carter, and Jean-Paul Chavas, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), 2019
• “Entrepreneurship and Financial Frictions: A Macro-Development Perspective.” with Francisco J. Buera and Yongseok Shin, Annual Review of Economics, 7 (August 2015): 409-436

Religious/Ethics/Catholic Social Thought Lectures and Writing

• “Christian Humanism and Poverty in the World.” in Poverty, Inequality, and Injustice as Challenges for Christian Humanism, edited by Msgr. Martin Schlag (Berlin: Duncker and Humblot), 2018 
• “Economy at the Service of the Integral Human Being.” keynote lecture for II Social Congress at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile , 2014
• “Structural Transformation: Causes, Implications, and Ethics.” in Wirtschaftsordnung und Sozialgerechtigkeit: Globale Perspektiven, edited by Karlies Abmeier and  Josef Thessing (Berlin: Konrad Adenauer Stiftung e.V.), 2013, pp. 145-158
• “What Would a Moral Economy Look Like? Values and Metrics.” Panel discussion for the Lumen Christi Institute’s conference “Toward a Moral Economy: Policies and Values for the 21st Century”, 2012
• “Comment on Hittinger’s ‘Divisible Goods and Common Goods: Reflections on Caritas in Veritate.’” Faith and Economics, 58 (Fall 2011): 47-57 
• “Charity and the Technical Economist: A Response to Paul Knitter.” in The World Market and Interreligious Dialogue, edited by Catherine Cornille, (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock), 2011