Ricardo Estrada
I am economist working on education, personnel, and development economics.
I work in the Research Department at CAF (development bank of Latin America and the Caribbean) in Mexico City. Previously, I was a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence. I hold a Ph.D in Economics from the Paris School of Economics and I graduated from the Master in Public Policy at the University of Chicago.
You can reach me at restrada (at) caf.com and find me on Twitter. My CV is available here.
Research
Journal articles
"Bureaucratic turnover across levels of government" with Pablo Brassiolo and Gustavo Fajardo. Open access.
Economía, the Journal of LACEA, April, 2024.
"Skills and selection into teaching: Evidence from Latin America" with Maria Lombardi. Open access.
Economía, the Journal of LACEA, November, 2023.
Post in Blog Visiones CAF (in Spanish).
"Going subnational: wage differentials across levels of government in Brazil, Mexico, and Uruguay" with Josefina Baez, Pablo Brassiolo and Gustavo Fajardo.
World Development, December, 2022.
"The effect of the demand for elite schools on stratification".
Economics Letters, June 2022.
Working paper Old and (much) larger working paper.
"Self-Selection into corruption: Evidence from the lab" with Pablo Brassiolo, Gustavo Fajardo and Juan Vargas.
Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, December, 2021.
Post in Blog Nada es Gratis (in Spanish)
"What do test scores really capture? Evidence from a large-scale student assessment in Mexico" with Rafael de Hoyos and María José Vargas.
World Development, October, 2021.
"My (running) mate, the mayor: Political ties and access to public sector jobs in Ecuador" with Pablo Brassiolo and Gustavo Fajardo.
Journal of Public Economics, November 2020.
"Poor little children: The socioeconomic gap in parental responses to school disadvantage" with Inés Berniell.
Labour Economics, October 2020.
Post in CEDLAS Blog (in Spanish)
"Rules vs Discretion in Public Service: Teacher Hiring in Mexico".
Journal of Labor Economics, April 2019.
Post in Nexos Education Blog (in Spanish)
Media coverage (in Spanish): Educación Futura, Reforma (non-gated version), El Financiero
"Benefits to elite schools and the expected returns to education: Evidence from Mexico City" with Jérémie Gignoux.
European Economic Review, June 2017.
Working papers
"The effect of high dismissal protection on bureaucratic turnover and productivity" with Maria Lombardi (this version: April, 2024).
Conditionally accepted: Journal of Human Resources.
CAF Working Paper (June, 2022).
Post in Blog Nada es Gratis (in Spanish).
"Money and lies: proxy respondents and the mismeasurement of income in surveys" with Daniela Goyheix and Maria Lombardi (April, 2024).
"Rule-based civil service: Evidence from a nationwide teacher reform in Mexico" with Rafael de Hoyos and Juan Bedoya. (this version: February, 2024).
CAF working paper (July, 2023).
Post in Let's Talk Development Blog in English and Spanish.
"Learning about opportunity: Spillovers of elite school admissions in Peru" with Jérémie Gignoux and Agustina Hatrick. (this version: December, 2023).
3rd Revise and Resubmit: Economic Journal.
CAF Working Paper (March, 2021).
"Family rules: Nepotism in the Mexican judiciary" with Pablo Brassiolo, Gustavo Fajardo, and Julián Martínez Correa. (this version: February, 2023).
CAF Working Paper (October, 2021).
"Academic benefits to full-time schools: Evidence from Fortaleza" with Agustina Hatrick and Cecilia Llambi. (this version: January, 2023).
Revise and Resubmit: Education Finance and Policy.
CAF Working Paper (March, 2022).
Evaluation report and executive summary (both in Portuguese).
Post in Blog Visiones CAF (in Spanish). Media coverage in OESTADO (in Portuguese). Webinar on full-time schools with education officials from Fortaleza (Brazil), Chile, and Peru (in Portuguese and Spanish).
Policy publications
Books
RED 2023. Desafíos globales, soluciones regionales: América Latina y el Caribe frente a la crisis climática y de biodiversidad. Coedited with Pablo Brassiolo. CAF–development bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, 2023.
Available in English and Portuguese.
Profesionistas en vilo. ¿Es la universidad una buena inversión? Centro de Investigación para el Desarrollo, A.C., Mexico City, 2011
Selected media coverage (in Spanish): W Radio, CNN Expansion, El Economista, Reforma (non-gated) .COVID policy note
Book chapters
La respuesta al cambio climático y la agenda de desarrollo de América Latina y el Caribe with Pablo Brassiolo and Ernesto Schargrodsky. In RED 2023. Desafíos globales, soluciones regionales: América Latina y el Caribe frente a la crisis climática y de biodiversidad. CAF–development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Ecosistemas y biodiversidad ante el cambio climático with Federico Juncosa. In RED 2023. Desafíos globales, soluciones regionales: América Latina y el Caribe frente a la crisis climática y de biodiversidad. CAF–development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Los servicios de salud y cuidados frente al envejecimiento. RED 2020: Los sistemas de pensiones y salud en América Latina. Los desafíos del envejecimiento, el cambio tecnológico y la informalidad. (with Dolores de la Mata) CAF-development bank of Latin America.
Choosing the best with Pablo Brassiolo. RED 2019: Integrity in public policy. Keys to prevent corruption. CAF-development bank of Latin America.
Also available in Spanish.
Mobility for accessibility with Fernando Alvarez-Parra. In RED 2017. Urban growth and access to opportunities: a challenge for Latin America. CAF-development bank of Latin America.
Also available in Spanish.
Perfil de la Pobreza Rural en Nicaragua. In Faiguenbaum, S., Ortega, C. y Soto, F. (Ed) Pobreza Rural y Políticas Públicas en ALC, Tomo II, Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, 2013.
Handbook
Assessing integration methodology (AIM): A handbook for measuring and assessing the integration of family planning and other reproductive health services (with Estela Rivero-Fuentes, Saumya Ramarao, Charlotte Warren, Saiqa Mullick, Harriet Birungi, Ian Askew and Susana Medina), FRONTIERS Manual. Washington, DC: Population Council, 2008.
COVID policy note
Políticas para reducir las brechas educativas en la pospandemia (with L. Berniell, B. Diaz, A. Hatrick, C. Llambi, L. Maris, and D. Singer). Documentos de políticas para el desarrollo. CAF-Development Bank of Latin America, 2021.
Teaching
Economics of Education, spring 2016
Ph.D. level course, Department of Economics, European University Institute
Received Max Weber Programme Teaching Certificate, 2015
European University Institute (Teaching Exchange at Humboldt University, Berlin)
Economics and Globalization, Teaching Assistant, 2013-2014
Master level course, Sciences Po, Paris School of International Affairs.
Microeconomics: Households and Firms, Teaching Assistant, 2011-2013
Master in Public Policy and Development, Paris School of Economics.