Research

I study labor markets in developing countries: informal employment, gender differences in pay and hours, the reach of social protection, and equality of opportunity. My work asks a practical question underneath all of these — who ends up covered, who doesn’t, and why.

Working papers

Social Insurance Without a Job

Working paper, 2026

In 2016, Mexico gave six million students health coverage that had nothing to do with having a job. A common worry is that benefits not tied to formal work discourage people from seeking it, but here formal employment rose fastest in states where informal work was already most common, and the effect ran entirely through wage jobs rather than self-employment.

Work in progress

Domestic Workers and Social Insurance

Work in progress

Mexico’s 2019 reform opened enrollment in the national social security system (IMSS) to two million domestic workers, overwhelmingly women, through a voluntary pilot meant as a bridge to a mandate. This project measures how much of the coverage gap voluntary enrollment actually closed.

From NAFTA to USMCA: Labor Market Effects in Mexico

Work in progress

In 2020, the trade agreement that replaced NAFTA wrote a minimum wage for autoworkers and a requirement for genuine union representation directly into its text, an unusual move for a trade deal. This project traces whether those provisions actually changed employment and pay in Mexico, using detailed records that link workers to their employers.

Other publications

Health Care Utilization and Costs in Systemic Therapies for Metastatic Melanoma, 2016-2020

The Oncologist, 2022

A newer generation of cancer drugs, called immune checkpoint inhibitors, has lowered death rates from advanced melanoma but changed how and where patients are treated. This paper documents how health care use and costs shifted across melanoma treatments between 2016 and 2020.

Policy and other writing

Short pieces written for non-academic audiences. Each links out to the publisher.

The gender gap in labor earnings: occupation, hours, and hourly pay. Banco de México, Quarterly Report April–June 2026, Box 2. PDF
La lactancia es desarrollo: ¿por qué apoyar la lactancia en el trabajo? Inter-American Development Bank, Gender and Diversity blog, January 2023. Read