Welcome to my website!

Bio

I am an Economist within the Economics Team (subscribe to our Newsletter) at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and editor of EDF's Economics Discussion Paper (EDP) series. I am also a member of the Climate Action Teams (CAT) initiative and the Multi-Country Electricity Transition (MCET) network. Previously, I was a Post-doctoral Fellow, Labor Economist at EDF. 

Before joining EDF, I was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Resources for the Future (RFF). I received my Ph.D. in Economics from the W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University (ASU). Before that time, I worked as a Policy Advisor at the Mexican Ministry of Finance (SHCP).

My background combines Macroeconomics, Environmental Economics, and quantitative economy-wide modeling. My current research focuses on Environmental Economics from a Macroeconomics perspective. Much of my work relates to understanding the effects of implementing carbon pricing or other environmental policies on the economy as a whole and the labor market. 

Recently, I have been focusing on power system transformations, their labor market implications, and the broader economic impacts of clean energy policies. I have also started to work on understanding the effects of the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) in developing countries.

What's new

I will participate as a panelist in EAERE 2025: Science-Policy-Business Session entitled “How climate policies are shaping the future of the labour market”  in Bergen on June 16. 

I have two new Market Forces blog posts: "Texas can create 150,000 jobs by plugging non-producing wells" with Maureen Lackner (cited by the Houston Chronicle) and "Boosting the Energy Transition in the Dominican Republic," with Rodrigo Bórquez and Francisco Pinto. 

I participated as a panelist in the AERE virtual panel: "Mind Matters: Managing stress, expectations, and health in grad school (poster)" on Feb 17, 2025!

I presented my paper "Carbon Taxation, Green Jobs, and Sectoral Human Capital" at AERE@EEA 2025. Also, I discussed "Tourism, economic development, and land use change" by Manuel Linsenmeier.

#ClimateWeekNYC, I was part of the event "How to use Electricity Models to Unlock the Clean Energy Transition." Lauren Beatty and I hosted a Breakout room on "Fair Labor & Health: Can we achieve fairer labor and health outcomes without raising costs?"

I have a new Market Forces blog post: "Navigating a Just Labor Transition: Unveiling the JLT Progress Scale and Strategies for a Fairer Future" with Brigitte Castañeda Rodríguez, Raphael J Heffron, and Minwoo Hyun.

I discussed the paper "Commuting, Home Utilities, and Production: The Distributional Effects of Energy Price Shocks" by Mehedi Hasan Oni at the NBER's Distributional Consequences of New Energy Policies, Fall 2024 Conference (program, YouTube).

My working paper:  "A Global and Inclusive Just Labor Transition: Challenges and Opportunities in Developed and Developing Countries." with Brigitte Castañeda Rodríguez, Raphael J Heffron, and Minwoo Hyun, is now featured in the Environmental Defense Fund Economics Discussion Paper Series. This paper was 1. in the recent SSRN Top 10 Downloads For ERN: Development Economics (Topic) and 3. in the SSRN Top 10 Downloads For: Environmental Economics eJournal. I presented it as a poster at the National Academies' Workshop on Macroeconomic Implications of Decarbonization Policies and Actions. Further, I presented this paper at the AERE 2024 Annual Summer Conference and the 2024 Sustainable Energy Transitions Initiative (SETI) Annual Workshop (recording). Also, I was invited to present this paper as a guest speaker for the course "TRANSICIÓN JUSTA: AVANZANDO HACIA ECONOMÍAS Y SOCIEDADES SOSTENIBLES" from the International Training Centre of the ILO (ITCILO). Lastly, I presented this work in the 2024 internal EDF Economics Seminar. 

I was happy to review the BCG Article: "In the Voluntary Carbon Market, Buyers Will Pay for Quality." (LinkedIn Post) 

I attended the SCHOOL ON ECONOMICS AND POLICY OF TRADE AND CLIMATE CHANGE from the Florence School of Regulation (FSR) at the European University Institute from 02 Oct 2023 to 05 Oct 2023. (Learn More)

My research project Job Quality and the Distributional Effects of Environmental Policy, jointly with Marc Hafstead and Roberton C. Williams III, was part of the NBER's Distributional Consequences of New Energy Policies Conference, 2023 program. You can see the recording here. I presented this work in the 2023 internal EDF Economics Seminar. 

My most recent working paper, joint with Diana MacDonald, focuses on the interaction of labor markets with informality and environmental policies.