Specialization:
Economic Development, Globalization & Structural Transformation, Inequality, Employment, Human Capital, Institutions
Education:
Bio:
Research:
My research asks how the democratization of education, expansions in international trade, and changes in the global structure of employment have helped and hindered equitable development. For example, some recent papers ask why developing countries today fail to industrialize. and study the consequences of deindustrialization for inequality, economic growth, and the incentives for men and women to invest in education. Other papers ask why some industries pay higher wages than others, whether national labor markets are becoming more or less intertwined with each other, what trade and services liberalization have done to wages, and what types of policies would improve employment opportunities and combat inequality.
I also study the political-economy of a wide variety of public institutions whose functioning is important for achieving sustainable and equitable development outcomes.. Past and current projects in this area tackle, for example, electricity sector reforms, food subsidy programs, caste and skin-color discrimination, schemes to stabilize commodity prices or pay for ecosystem services, the drivers of humanitarian foreign policy and the effects of economic growth on public services corruption.
Before joining UCSB, I served as an economist at the Asian Development Bank, where I analyzed electricity sector reforms in several Central Asian countries and the Philippines and covered global and Asian macroeconomic developments.
Publications:
For a complete list of publications, please see my CV, or my Google Scholar page.
Journal Articles
Titles are linked to final journal articles. I also link to free pre-publication working paper versions of all articles that are behind paywalls. Articles are divided roughly by my two broad areas of interest:
Structural change, Economic Development, Employment and Human Capital:
- Manufacturing matters... but it's the jobs that count (with Jesus Felipe and Changyong Rhee), Cambridge Journal of Economics, (Forthcoming). Working Paper.
- When Development is Not Enough: Structural Change, Conflict and Gendered Insecurity (with Alison Brysk), Global Society, (2017). Working Paper.
- Labor Regulations, Employment and Wages: Evidence from India's Apparel Sector, (with Rana Hasan, Nidhi Kapoor and Asha Sundaram). Asian Economic Policy Review (2017).
- Deindustrialization? A Global Perspective (with Jesus Felipe), Economics Letters (2016). Working Paper.
- Research Diversification and Impact: The Case of National Nanoscience Development (with Patrick Herron, Timothy Lenoir and Cong Cao), Scientometrics (2016). Working paper.
- Does industry affiliation influence wages? Evidence from Indonesia and the Asian Financial Crisis (with Wei Sun), World Development (2013). Working paper.
- Where have all the educated workers gone? Services and wage inequality in three Asian economies (with Jesus Felipe, Pilipinas Quising and Sheila Camingue), Metroeconomica (2013). Working paper.
- Economic Liberalization and Rising College Premiums in Mexico: A Reinterpretation (with Belinda Acuna Mohr), World Development (2012). Working paper.
- The effects of trade and services liberalization on wage inequality in India (with Rana Hasan), International Review of Economics and Finance (2012). Working paper.
- Globalization and De-Globalization in Nanotechnology Research: The role of China (with Patrick Herron, Yasuyuki Motoyama, Richard Appelbaum and Tim Lenoir), Scientometrics (2012). Working paper.
- Overeducation in Developing Economies: How can we test for it and what does it mean? (with Jesus Felipe, Pilipinas Quising and Sheila Camingue), Economics of Education Review (2011). Working paper.
- Understanding the Coffee Crisis: What Can We Learn from Price Dynamics? (with Jean-Paul Chavas), Journal of Development Economics (2008). Working paper
- Why Do Diplomas Pay? An Expanded Mincerian Framework Applied to Mexico (with Hector J. Villarreal), Applied Economics. (2008). Working paper.
- Under-Representation of Disadvantaged Classes in College: What do the Data Tell Us? (With Rana Hasan), Economic and Political Weekly (of India) (2006). Working paper.
- Price Dynamics in a Vertical Sector: The Case of Butter (with Jean-Paul Chavas), American Journal of Agricultural Economics (2004). Working paper.
Functioning of Public Institutions:
- Is Only Fair Lovely? Consequences of Skin Color in a Survey Experiment in Delhi (with Amit Ahuja and Susan Ostermann), Journal of Race, Ethnicity and Politics (2016). Working paper.
- Pilferage from Opaque Food Subsidy Programs: Theory and Evidence (with Shikha Jha), Food Policy, (2014). Working paper.
- Do rights at home boost rights abroad? Sexual equality and humanitarian foreign policy (with Alison Brysk), Journal of Peace Research (2014). Working paper.
- Self-targeted food subsidies and voice: Evidence from the Philippines (with Shikha Jha and Pilipinas Quising), Food Policy (2013). Working paper.
- Corruption, Food Subsidies and Opacity: Evidence from the Philippines (with Shikha Jha), Economics Letters (2012). Working paper.
- Incomplete Property Rights, Exposure to Markets, and the Provision of Ecosystem Services in China (with Michael T. Bennett and Jintao Xu), China Economic Review (2011). Working paper.
- Power Sector Reform in Central Asia: Observations on the Diverse Experiences of Five Central Asian Republics and Mongolia (with Anil Terway & Satish Rao), Journal of Cleaner Production (2007). Working paper.
Working Papers
- Is Employment Globalizing? (with Liming Chen, Jesus Felipe and Andrew Kam).
- The Effects of Labor Regulation on Firms and Exports: Theory and Evidence from Indian Apparel (with Rana Hasan and Asha Sundaram, 2017)
- Will this get me a job? Gender, Employment and College Attainment, Before and After the Mancession (with Vedant Koppera, 2017)
- Education and the Journey to the Core: Path Dependence or leapfrogging? (with Jesus Felipe, 2014)
Select Book Chapters and Reports
- Asia's Structural Transformation: Where to, how, and how fast? (with Jesus Felipe, Roehl Briohnes, Douglas Brooks and Bart Verspagen, 2013).
- Education and Structural Change in Four Asian Countries (with Jesus Felipe, 2007)
- International Payments Imbalances (with Frank Harrigan and Jesus Felipe, 2006)
- A Diagnostic Review of Regulatory Approaches and Challenges: Power Sector Reforms in Seven CAREC Member Countries(with David Butcher, 2005)
- The Economics and Feasibility of Electricity Generation using Manure Digesters on Small and Medium Size Dairy Farms. (2002).
Invited Online Articles
- Are Labor Markets Increasingly Global? Some Empirical and Policy Concerns, Global-e, the E-journal of 21st Century Global Dynamics Initiative (2018)
- How Serious are India’s Manufacturing Skill Gaps? , Ideas for India (2015)
- The Manufacturing Conundrum, (with Jesus Felipe and Changyong Rhee), World Bank Jobs and Development Website (2015)
- Five ways to lessen inequality as demand for labor softens worldwide, Huffington Post (2014).
- Strawberries, Chocolate and Skill Gaps, World Bank Jobs and Development Website (2014).
- Why Global students should study economics. Global-e, the E-journal of 21st Century Global Dynamics Initiative (2013)
In the works..
- Does the US Nanotechnology sector suffer a skills gap? (with Stacey Frederick and Rachel Parker)
- What does economic growth do to public services corruption? (with Amit Ahuja).
- Making sense of India's manufacturing "skill gaps" (with Deboshree Ghosh)
- Trade Liberalization and Inequality as if Businessmen Existed (with Asha Sundaram and Andrew Dawson)
- Two concepts of value: The uses of higher education in the humanities and economics (with Chris Newfield and Heather Steffen)