Curriculum

You can find my detailed CV here.

Current Projects

Migration, remittances and inequality:  I am currently working on a project analyzing the dynamics between migration, remittances and inequality in rural Mexico. Empirical litereture on the effects of migration on inequality delivered conflicting results.  This project will analyze these dynamic linkages using novel panel data with an extensive coverage of migration histories from farm households in rural Mexico.  This is a collaborative project with J. Edward Taylor and Jorge Mora and will extend their previous research on the same topic based on cross-sectional data.

A novel "value capture" strategy for fine coffee: Trademarks: The Trademarking and Licensing Initiative of the Ethiopian Government is a brand management strategy that aims to improve the recognition of Ethiopian fine coffees and increase farmers' incomes from Sidamo, Harar and Yirgacheffe coffees.  This research will analyze in detail the coffee value chain in Ethiopia and investigate the effects of the trademark initiative on the export prices of Sidamo, Harar and Yirgacheffe coffees as compared to coffees from other origins.  It will also identify strategies to improve and scale up the initiative to derive policy recommendations.  Results will contribute to the design of similar projects to capture more of the value of fine coffees (or other high value products) within producing countries and improve farmer welfare in the long run. You can find a poster on the work-in-progress and a paper here and here.

Changing farmer incentives for on-farm conservation of traditional maize in rural Mexico: Mexico is the center of origin and diversity of maize. Understanding how farmers' incentives are changing with changes in the global food markets is key to efficient policy design for conservation of agricultural biodiversity both on- and off-farm.  This project will analyze how the production, diversity and incentives for the on-farm conservation of traditional maize changed between 2002 and 2007 using novel housheold panel data from rural Mexico. This period covers the major part of the worldwide increases in grain prices and therefore will also shed light into how small-scale farmers were affected by the food crisis in rural Mexico. This project will update and extend my PhD dissertation research in collaboration with J. Edward Taylor.