I am a PhD economist from Washington State University's School of Economic Sciences, specializing in econometrics with over 10 years of experience spanning economic consulting, industry, academia, and government sectors.
My research has focused on applied econometrics and statistical methods, making contributions to new econometric methods and applications in various areas such as resource, food, labor, and health economics. For example, while working in the Department of Healthcare Policy and Research at the School of Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University, I was involved in research projects related to health insurance and employment. In a recent published paper available at the World Health Organization COVID-19 Research Database, my co-author and I utilized a spatial econometric model to analyze the effect of county-level socioeconomic and demographic factors on the spatial spread of COVID-19 in the US during the early months of the pandemic.
My dissertation involved various econometric analyses of choice behavior of consumers and households facing discrete and dynamic choice processes, respectively. For example, it provided the first empirical application of an innovative semi-parametric binary response estimator, which I applied to estimate the willingness to pay for recreation demand using a stated-preference contingent valuation survey dataset.
During an internship at the USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS), Branch of Diet, Health and Safety, I helped enhance the analytical usefulness of Nielsen Homescan panel data -- a nationwide longitudinal database on food purchase transactions of U.S. households. Using this panel dataset, I examined household purchase dynamics for dietary fiber using a dynamic Tobit model that accounts for the effect of past purchases on current fiber purchase decisions. For more details see here.
Previously, I dedicated seven years to economic consulting, supporting antitrust litigation cases. My work entailed utilizing causal inference methods and econometric analyses to evaluate market power in instances alleging anticompetitive conduct by manufacturers. Additionally, I quantified economic damages and assessed allegations of improper marketing and fraudulent drug promotion using advanced analytical methods, ranging for example from time-series and panel data models to demand system estimation.
I am originally from Chile and enjoy outdoor activities, though I don't get to spend as much time outside as I would like.