Fields
Primary: Applied Microeconomics
Secondary: Development, Sustainability, Innovation
Employment
Center for Effective Global Action 2025 – Present
University of California, Berkeley
Postdoctoral Scholar
Education
Cornell University 2018 – 2024
PhD in Applied Economics
Universidad de los Andes, Colombia 2008 – 2012
BA in Economics
Work Experience
Graduate Research Assistant 2017 – 2024
Cornell University
Research Consultant 2017
Environmental Defense Fund, Oceans Program
Research Assistant 2014 – 2016
Universidad de los Andes, Colombia
Teaching Experience
Visiting Lecturer, Cornell University Fall 2024
AEM 2350: Introduction to the Economics of Development
Instructor of Record, Cornell University Spring 2023
ECON 3550: Economics of Developing Countries
Teaching Assistant, Cornell University Fall 2022
AEM 4111: Introduction to Econometrics
Journal Articles
Nature Plants 2024
with Martina Occelli et al.
Trait prioritization in crop breeding programs: a scoping review on tools and methods
Environmental Research Letters 2023
with Ximena Rueda and Romaike Middendorp
The role of collective action in the cacao sector in enhancing sustainability, market upgrading and agro-biodiversity conservation
Marine Resource Economics 2021
with Andreas Leibbrandt and Maria Alejandra Vélez
Regrouping to reduce overfishing: Evidence from a Series of Experiments in Mexico
Preventive Veterinary Medicine 2020
with Francisco Leal-Yepes et al.
Blood β-hydroxybutyrate concentrations and early lactation management strategies on pasture-based dairy farms in Colombia
Agricultural Economics 2019
with Dragan Miljkovic, Miguel I. Gómez, and Anupa Sharma
Testing the Alchian–Allen theorem for three goods using the pseudo-Poisson model
International Journal of the Commons 2016
with Ivan Lobo and Maria Alejandra Vélez
Leadership, entrepreneurship, and collective action: A case study from the Colombian Pacific Region
Other Publications
How can economic incentives designed for environmental conservation support a transition to sustainable and equitable agriculture?
with Lina Moros, Dayron Monroy and Ximena Rueda
Report: Commission on Sustainable Agriculture Intensification 2022
U.S. Agricultural Exports to Colombia: Rising Sales in Response to Trade Liberalization and Changing Consumer Trends
with Miguel Gomez, Steven Zahniser and Jie Li
Report: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service 2021
El rol del Estado en la gobernanza social y ambiental privada
with Maria Alejandra Vélez and Ximena Rueda
Book Chapter in Gestión del Desarrollo Sostenible, Ediciones Uniandes 2018
Working Papers
Innovation and Technological Mismatch: Experimental Evidence from Improved Seeds (Job Market Paper)
Coverage: World Bank - DIME blog, SeedWorld Magazine, New Things Under the Sun
This paper studies how innovators' decisions affect the diffusion of agricultural technology in a developing country. In a field experiment introducing drought-resistant seeds, farmers were offered either a variety aligned with their stated preferences or a blanket recommendation selected by crop scientists. Uptake of the recommended seed was significantly lower and did not improve productivity, while farmers who adopted their preferred variety reported 31 percent higher yields. The negative effect on adoption was stronger when the recommended seed was less genetically novel, was unmitigated by prior drought exposure, and persisted one year later. These findings highlight a key barrier to technology diffusion in low-income settings: innovators' failure to incorporate farmer heterogeneity creates large adoption gaps. Matching technologies to farmer preferences improves both uptake and productivity by enabling adaptation to farm-specific conditions, which are often overlooked by innovators.
Rural household response to labor supply shocks: Evidence from Ethiopia's travel ban on migrant workers
This paper estimates the impact of labor supply shocks on production decisions in Ethiopian family farms. I exploit a shift in immigration policy that halted international travel and triggered mass return migration. The policy change affects farms through two channels: increased family labor availability and reduced remittance income. In response, farm labor demand rises, but hired labor and input intensification remain unchanged. Migrant-sending households face greater labor rationing than nonmigrant counterparts. Together, these findings suggest that migration facilitates input reallocation under local labor constraints. When labor flows are restricted, farms are unable to adjust farm production in response to surplus labor.
Measuring the Heterogeneous Effects of Farm Input Subsidies on Household Outcomes: Evidence from Malawi
With Christone Nyondo, Maggie Munthali, Zephania Nyirenda, and Brian Dillon
Countries across Sub-Saharan Africa invest heavily in agricultural input subsidies to support smallholder farmers. We study the effects of these subsidies on productivity and income, and whether impacts differ by farmer age. Using a nine-year panel survey from Malawi (2010–2019), we document a steady decline in the share of recipients, driven primarily by reduced access among older farmers and coinciding with falling government allocations. Access to subsidized inputs increases the relative productivity of younger farmers by 34 percent but has no significant effect on income for either age group. The productivity gains among youth appear to reflect more efficient input use on smaller landholdings.
Farmer Knowledge and Genomic Uncertainty in Technology Adoption Measurement
with Martina Occelli et al.
DNA fingerprinting is increasingly used to measure adoption of improved crop varieties in low-income countries, often revealing high rates of misidentification attributed to farmer error. We show that this interpretation overlooks important sources of disagreement between survey- and fingerprinting-based identification. In a field experiment in Costa Rica, we find that selecting respondents with higher agronomic knowledge improves correct identification by 14 percent. This effect reflects variation in farmer knowledge and is not solely driven by intra-household respondent selection. We show that inherent uncertainty in genomic methods accounts for a substantial share of disagreement, which could be mistakenly attributed to farmer misidentification. Agreement rates range from 41 to 57 percent, with lower rates associated with greater variability in the reference genetic library. Notably, roughly one-third of observed agreement occurs in cases where genomic methods identify varieties with high confidence.
Preventive Technologies: Evidence from a Choice Experiment with Dairy Farmers
With Miguel I. Gómez, Francisco Leal-Yepes, Sabine Mann, and Jessica McArt
We study how farmers' risk preferences affect management decisions in settings where control over individual production units is limited. Using a choice experiment with Colombian dairy farmers, we elicit measures of risk aversion and willingness to pay for health-related information. Cows managed by more risk-averse farmers exhibit lower incidence of ketosis, a metabolic disorder that reduces productivity. This effect is concentrated among lower-income farms and is consistent with a self-protection strategy in which risk-averse farmers adopt preventive technologies to mitigate exposure. Farm management practices mediate this relationship, particularly those that reduce disease risk at the expense of short-run revenue. Risk aversion is also positively associated with willingness to pay for diagnostic information, suggesting complementarities between behavioral traits, information, and technology adoption.
Grants and Awards
Feed the Future - ILCI, Research Project Charter Grant ($192,328) 2023
Marine Resource Economics, Outstanding Article Award 2022
NSF, Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant in Economics ($32,075) 2021
Presentations
2025: Metascience 2025 (University College London), AAEA Annual Meeting (Virtual Session)
2024: NEUDC 2024 (Northeastern University), Advances in Micro Development Workshop (Barcelona School of Economics), MWIEDC (University of Chicago), PacDev (Stanford University), ILCI Annual Meeting (San Jose, Costa Rica)
2023: AAEA Annual Meeting (Washington, DC)
2022: ILCI Annual Meeting (Dakar, Senegal)
Skills
Programming: STATA, R, Python, Julia, HTML/CSS, Latex, ODK
Languages: Spanish (Native), English (fluent)
Service
Refereeing: Journal of Development Studies, Review of Economics of the Household, Agricultural Systems, Food Policy