Ruben Irvin Rojas​Valdes
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  • Home
  • Research
  • Publications
  • Teaching
  • Medios (ESP)
  • CV
  • Contact
  Ruben Irvin Rojas​Valdes
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Survey work in San Mateo del Mar, Oaxaca, Mexico.

About My research

My primary fields of interest are development economics and applied econometrics. Here is a list of the projects I am currently working on.

For concluded projects that have resulted in publications, see my Publications.

POlicy evaluation

I use econometric methods to understand the effects of policy measures on economic outcomes. I use a variety of methods, including experimental designs, simulation, non-experimental evaluation techniques, spatial econometrics, among others. I am currently working on the following evaluation projects:
  • ​Simulation Models for Industrial Localization, Employment and Poverty: An Application to the Case of Mexico 2010-2015, with Isidro Soloaga.
  • The Impact of Fiscal and Wage Changes on Employment in the Mexican Border Municipalities, with Luis Felipe Munguía.​

COVID-19 

I am currently working on two projects analyzing the effects of Covid-19 on several economic dimensions in Mexico. These two projects are in the data analysis stage:
  • A Pandemic Crossing the Border: Impact of Covid-19 in the US on Mexican Labor Markets, with Jisang Yu.
  • The Economic Benefits and Costs of Covid-19 Mitigation Policies in Mexican Cities.

Migration strategic interactions

For my Ph.D. dissertation, I analyzed the dynamic and strategic migration, labor market participation, and schooling decisions of individuals and households in rural Mexico using reduced-form and structural econometric models. This resulted in three papers I am currently working on:
  • Neighborhood Effects in Migration, with C.-Y. Cynthia Lin Lawell & J. Edward Taylor.
  • Migration Dynamics, Strategy, and Policy, with C.-Y. Cynthia Lin Lawell & J. Edward Taylor.
  • The Economics of Migration and Migration Policy in Rural Mexico, with C.-Y. Cynthia Lin Lawell.

income and wages

I also work on issues related to the Mexican labor market and on the public policies that are likely to affect its characteristics. Two ongoing projects include:
  • Income Changes and Consumption Smoothing: Evidence from the PROSPERA Program, with Manuela Angelucci, Silvia Prina & Carlos Chiapa.
    • IZA Working Paper 14452​

other research

I have worked as a consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in the Trade and Integration Sector analyzing data on trade and transportation routes in Chile and Colombia.

I have also worked consulting the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on a project to evaluate the local effects of extension on agricultural development in Zambia.

As a Ph.D. student, I have worked with a team of researchers from UC Davis and the World Food Programme in a project to evaluate the effects of the switch in aid regime from in-kind aid to cash in refugee camps in Rwanda. This project resulted in peer-reviewed publications in the 
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and in World Development. 
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