My research examines how critical and dynamic capabilities influence the decisions individuals and organizations make to advance what they perceive as human development. This framework guides my applied research, which evaluates via randomized trials and other quasi-experimental methods how interventions in Africa and Latin America help actors make more autonomous decisions when facing an arc of political and economic possibilities.
These initiatives fall into two lines of study:
Social Innovation.
My main areas of focus include how to leverage digital technologies and behavioral insights, with a focus on migration, financial inclusion, education, and transitional justice. In Colombia, we implemented a randomized evaluation of a 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. In Uganda, we designed a randomized evaluation of an interactive mobile phone games to teach users how to recognize and prevent fraud. Another initiative involves tracking 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 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.