Conflict and Female Leadership: Evidence from Colombia

Examines whether female leadership reduces violence during the Colombian conflict (late 1990s–2000s). Using close mayoral races between women and men as an identification strategy, I find that the election of female candidates correlates with a 60% decline in guerrilla attacks. The paper analyzes the spatial distribution and gender composition of guerrilla units, and uses text analysis of campaign statements to show that female mayors use more “peaceful” language while acknowledging conflict, consistent with a preference for de-escalation.

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The Spanish Legacy in the US Southwest

with Felipe Valencia Caicedo

Digitizes maps of Catholic missions, presidios, and settler routes in California, Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico to examine the economic and cultural legacy of Spanish colonialism. Documents initial evangelization success that later dissipated, agricultural practices transitioning to manufacturing and urbanization, and persistent effects on schooling as well as on liberal perspectives among educated populations.

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The Lasting Impacts of US Foreign Interventions in Central America: The ‘School of the Americas’

with Eduardo Montero, Felipe Valencia Caicedo

Examines the impacts of US foreign policy on Central American conflicts, focusing on the United Fruit Company’s interests and on the role of the School of the Americas in training officers involved in the Guatemalan Civil War. Digitizes UFC operational data and SOA graduate records, and uses spatial regression discontinuity designs to document significant relationships between these institutions and conflict-era violence patterns.

Indigenous Institutions and Economic Well-being (draft available upon request)

Studies the economic consequences of adopting indigenous governance (“Usos y Costumbres”) in Mexican municipalities after 1995. Larger institutional deviations correlate with greater poverty reduction but higher inequality, with no detectable effect on public services. The “Sistema de Cargos” (communal service system) and the removal of voting transparency emerge as the key drivers, suggesting that enhanced community accountability benefits ethnically diverse municipalities most.

Catholicism and Gender Violence

Examines whether colonial Catholic exposure correlates with contemporary gender-based violence in Mexico, combining indigenous-population and mission distribution data with victimization surveys. Uses the 1705 convent system reform for causal identification. Finds a positive correlation between historical Catholic influence and present-day gender violence, suggesting that Christian norms integrated with indigenous customs persist in contemporary patterns of violence.

Origins of Latin American Inequality

Published in Latin American and Caribbean Inequality Review, 2024

with Felipe Valencia Caicedo

Surveys the historical and contemporary literature on regional economic disparities in Latin America. Documents national and sub-national patterns of income inequality, and examines the role of colonial institutions, slavery, land reform, education, and elites. Includes replication exercises extending seminal papers in the literature to incorporate inequality measures.

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Campaign Finance and Welfare When Contributions Are Spent on Mobilizing Voters

Published in Social Choice and Welfare, 2021

with Oskar Nupia

Develops a model of political competition that studies the welfare effects of campaign-finance policy when contributions fund voter mobilization rather than advertising. Social costs are measured through reductions in the quality of public works. Public subsidies combined with contribution bans are welfare-improving only under low mobilization productivity, whereas contribution taxes that fund public projects prove welfare-improving under all technological conditions considered.

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Politics and Reconciliation: A Critical Juncture for State Building in Colombia

Published in Colombia en Movimiento 2010–2013–2016 (ed. Castaño), Ediciones Uniandes, 2016

with Leopoldo Fergusson, Andrés Moya

Chapter in Colombia en Movimiento 2010–2013–2016, edited by L. M. Castaño, Bogotá: Ediciones Uniandes.

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