I am an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Economics at Universidad Alberto Hurtado (Santiago de Chile).
I am also an Associate Researcher at the Centro de Estudios Justicia & Sociedad (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile) and the Centro Interdisciplinar de Políticas Públicas (Universidad Alberto Hurtado).
My research interests lie in crime, urban economics, applied methods, and network analysis.
The impact of violence on economic growth: Evidence from Colombia’s armed conflict
Defence and Peace Economics, Forthcoming
When 'eyes on the street' are not enough: Insights from itinerant street markets
Journal of Quantitative Criminology, S.I. on Advances in Spatial Networks, Mobility, and Crime (2025): 1-29
(with S. Fossati and N. Trajtenberg) [SSRN WP] [Slides]
The heterogeneous effects of COVID-19 lockdowns on crime across the world
Crime Science 13, No. 22 (2024)
(with N. Trajtenberg, S. Fossati, [...] and M.P. Eisner) [Replication Files] [GitHub]
Parents, neighbors and youth crime
Review of Economics of the Household 21 (2023): 673-692
(with E. Patacchini) [SSRN WP] [IZA DP]
Stay at home if you can: COVID-19 stay-at-home guidelines and local crime
Journal of Empirical Legal Studies 19, No. 4 (2022): 1067-1113
(with S. Fossati and N. Trajtenberg) [SSRN WP]
Can OLPC reduce digital inequalities? ICT household access patterns under Plan Ceibal
Telecommunications Policy 46, No. 4 (2022): 102406
(with M. Dodel and P. Menese) [SSRN WP]
Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 192 (2021): 638-667
(with E. Patacchini, T. Verdier and Y. Zenou) [CEPR DP] [IZA DP] [VoxEU] [Brookings Blog]
A global analysis of the impact of COVID-19 stay-at-home restrictions on crime
Nature Human Behaviour 5, No. 7 (2021): 868-877
(with A.E. Nivette, R. Zahnow, [...] and M.P. Eisner) [Open Access] [Project] [Replication Dataset] [Media]
Social interactions in health behaviors and conditions
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Economics and Finance (2019)
(with A. Balsa) [Oxford Encyclopedia of Health Economics] [RedUM]
Self-control and peer groups: An empirical analysis
Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 134 (2017): 240-254
(with M. Battaglini and E. Patacchini) [CEPR DP] [VoxEU]
R & R at the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A: Statistics in Society
(with M. Cattaneo and R. Titiunik) [arXiv] [GitHub]
Low-rank bilinear autoregressive models for three-way criminal activity tensors
R & R at the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C: Applied Statistics
(with G. Zens, D. Durante and E. Patacchini) [arXiv] [Slides]
Unveiling hardships beyond the poverty line: A matching methods approach
New version coming soon
(with F. Betancor*) [SSRN WP]
Agglomeration, mobility, and crime: Insights from a public transport network
Invited to submit to Crime Science, S.I.: 50th Anniversary of Crime as Opportunity
(with F. Fernández*, S. Fossati and N. Trajtenberg)
Partners or partisans: Unraveling the nexus of political alignment and police engagement in the FBI's UCR program
(with D. Buil-Gil, P. Ezquerra, S. Fossati and N. Trajtenberg)
Street grids and crime: Evidence from New York City
(with E. Choque* and J. Urrego)
Public spending efficiency: A DEA approach
(with F. Crespo)
People on the street, use of violence, and property crime
Crime in America
(with S. Fossati and N. Trajtenberg)
Crime in Transit: The Impact of TransMiCable on Bogota Bus Stops
(with D. Astorga-Rojas and J. Orozco*)
Fondecyt (Initiation Level) - ANID (Chile): 2025-2028
Principal Investigator
Millennium Nucleus on Criminal Complexity - ANID (Chile): 2024-2027
Principal Investigator
National System of Researchers (SNI) - ANII (Uruguay): 2024-2027
Associate Researcher (Level I, without Funding)
Fondo Sectorial on Citizen Security - ANII (Uruguay): 2022-2024
Principal Investigator
National System of Researchers (SNI) - ANII (Uruguay): 2018-2023
Active Researcher (Initiation Level, with Funding)
Graduate Student Scholarship - Syracuse University (USA): 2012-2017
Graduate Student
Maxwell Dean’s Summer Assistantship - Syracuse University (USA): 2013
Graduate Student
Graduate Student Scholarship - Washington University in St. Louis (USA): 2010-2012
Graduate Student
Grant for Graduate Studies in the USA - Fulbright Program (USA): 2009
Graduate Student (Declined)
