Research

Working Papers

The Gender Diversity Gap in Mathematics (Master’s in Economics Thesis)
with Dante Contreras
Under Review

We study gender gaps in mathematics achievement and confidence among Chilean 10th-grade students using linked administrative and survey data from 4th to 10th grade. We distinguish cisgender, transgender, and non-binary students by combining sex assigned at birth with self-reported gender identity, and estimate within-school gaps conditional on baseline achievement, baseline confidence, and demographics. Relative to cisgender boys, mathematics scores remain lower for cisgender girls, transgender girls, and transgender boys, with heterogeneous patterns across the distribution: gaps widen toward the top for cisgender girls, transgender boys, and non-binary students assigned female at birth, while the transgender-girl gap is concentrated in the lower tail. Confidence gaps are larger and more systematic. All comparison groups are less likely than cisgender boys to report the highest confidence category, even conditional on contemporaneous achievement. Transgender and non-binary students also report more discrimination and social or online aggression. These experiences explain part of the confidence gaps for some groups but little of the score gaps. Religious-school results suggest institutional-context heterogeneity, but selection-adjusted estimates attenuate achievement interactions and discrimination differences are imprecise.

Work in Progress

The Limits of Municipal Governance: Public School Organization and Performance

Selected Research Assistance

Who, How, and Where: Unpacking the Impacts of Affirmative Action
Sebastián Otero (Columbia), Nano Barahona (UC Berkeley), Tomás Larroucau (ASU), Jorge Rodríguez (UAndes), and Andrés Barrios (UAndes)
When Private Firms Provide Public Goods: The Allocation of CSR Spending
Noémie Pinardon-Touati (Columbia), Kim Fe Cramer (LSE) and Lucie Gadenne (QMUL)
Catch-up Growth, Firm Scale, and the Energy Intensity of Production
Noémie Pinardon-Touati (Columbia), Kathryn McDonald (Columbia), and Conor Walsh (Columbia)
Applied Microeconometrics..
Damian Clarke (UChile, U of Exeter)
The MIT Press (2026).
Estimating Inter-generational Returns to Medical Care: New Evidence from At-Risk Newborns
Damian Clarke (UChile, U of Exeter), Nicolás Lillo Bustos, and Kathya Tapia Schythe (UC Davis)
Journal of Public Economics (2026).
The Economics of Abortion Policy
Damian Clarke (UChile, U of Exeter)
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Economics and Finance (2024).
Exploring the impact of social protest on mental health: A study of the 2019 ``Social Uprising’’ in Chile
Fabián Duarte (UChile), and Álvaro Jiménez-Molina (U Diego Portales)
Social Science and Medicine. 340 (2024): 116392.
Radiografía del Cambio Social en Chile 2016-2022
Centro de Estudios de Conflicto y Cohesión Social (COES). Estudio Longitudinal Social de Chile (ELSOC)
Experimental Evidence of Privacy by Default and Dark Patterns on Consumer Privacy Decision Making
Servicio Nacional del Consumidor (SERNAC), Subdrección de Consumo Financiero, Coordinación de Economía del Comportamiento.