My research examines how individual and group capabilities influence the decisions individuals and organizations make to advance what they perceive as human development. Based on these insights, I seek to design and evaluate social innovations that better harvest local solutions to solve common social challenges. These initiatives fall into two lines of study:
Social Innovation.
My main areas of focus include how to leverage digital technologies and behavioral insights in the development areas of financial inclusion, entrepreneurship, migration, and transitional justice. In Colombia, we conducted a randomized evaluation of an innovative tablet-based financial education app distributed via the country’s main cash transfer program and traced how it led to increased financial health two years after the intervention. In Peru, we conducted a regression discontinuity study of the country’s collective reparations program, the first known rigorous impact evaluation of a popular transitional justice mechanism used in post-conflict settings. Another initiative involves the longitudinal study of a cohort of Venezuelan migrants to Peru, including a randomized evaluation of the effect of an emergency cash transfer during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Leading Change.
My interests also include study of how organizations and leaders develop social innovations and forge change, with a focus on strategic philanthropy and corporate shared value initiatives. Two separate studies mapped the philanthropic sectors in Chile and Peru, while another created an organizational capacity index to help strengthen institutional philanthropy in Latin America.