I arrived at the University of Oxford in 2008 after five years at the Institute for the Study of the Americas (University of London). I hold a joint appointment at OSGA and the Department of International Development. I am also Associate Head for People in the Social Science Division, a member of the University’s Council and a Fellow of St Antony’s College. I love Oxford’s commitment to multidisciplinary area studies and to a deeper understanding of the economic, political and social challenges in different parts of the global South.
I am a rare economist whose research is mainly based on qualitative comparative case studies. I am interested in how countries, particularly in the global South can promote equality and believe that this depends as much on the right policies as on the right political coalitions and institutions. My research on income inequality, globalisation, industrial policy and social policy has been published in different international journals including World Development, the Journal of Latin American Studies, Economy and Society and the Latin American Research Review as well as in three monographs (two of them with Juliana Martínez Franzoni), four books I have co-edited. I also do periodic consultancies on some of these issues for CEPAL, ILO, Oxford Analytica, UNDP and other organisations.