I
L
G
C
D
ONTACT
ETAILS
RAND Corporation
1776 Main Street
Santa Monica, CA 90401 https://sites.google.com/site/italolopezg
E-mail: ilopezga@rand.org
Citizenship: Chilean
Mobile: +1 (310)393-0411 x6649
R ESEARCH
F IELDS
Primary: Labor Economics; Aging, Retirement and Pensions; Child Development
Secondary: Life-cycle models, Human Capital Investments
P ROFESSIONAL
E XPERIENCE
RAND , Santa Monica, U.S.
Associate Economist, Division of Labor and Population .
Professor RAND PARDEE Graduate School of Public Policy
Sep 2014 -
World Bank Consultant , London, UK and Santiago de Chile Jul 2010 - Dec 2013
Impact Evaluation of a nationwide parenting intervention , Ministry of Health, Chile.
Tasks: Design of the socioeconomic survey, Fieldwork Coordination, Data analysis, behavioral models, fundraising.
Financial Engineer, Andina S.A.
, Santiago de Chile
• 2005-2006: Head of Finance Logistic Division
• 2003-2005: Financial Planner, Finance Division
Apr 2003 - Ago 2006
Teaching
• 2010-2014: Econometrics, 2st year undergraduate, UCL
• 2012: Public Microeconomics Econometrics, M.Sc. Economics, UCL
• 2011-2013: Economics of the Public Sector, 3st year undergraduate, UCL
• 2007-2008: Econometrics, 2st year undergraduate, UPF
E
W
P
DUCATION
ORKING
APERS
Ph.D., Economics, University College of London
• Thesis: "Essays in the evaluation of Human Capital and Labor Policies"
• Thesis Advisors:
Professor Costas Meghir, E-mail: c.meghir@yale.edu
Professor Orazio Attanasio, E-mail: o.attanasio@ucl.ac.uk
M.Sc., Economics, University Pompeu Fabra (with honours)
B.Sc.
Civil Industrial Engineering (cum-laude)
2008-2014
2006-2008
2001
"Human Capital and Labor Informality in developing countries: A structural dynamic approach" . RAND Working Papers, WR-1087.
Labor informality accounts for nearly 40% of the labor force in Latin America. While a more traditional view sees this phenomenon as a consequence of barriers to mobility resulting from poorly designed labor regulations, recent work provides evidence that individuals choose informal jobs based on their comparative advantage. In this paper, I develop a dynamic life-cycle model estimated with rich Chilean longitudinal data, in which individuals jointly decide on their schooling and labor participation, to investigate the extent to which comparative advantage drives participation in informal labor markets. The evidence from estimated wage returns, preferences for job amenities and mobility costs suggest that labor markets in Chile are fairly competitive. Labor market segmentation explains up to 25% of labor market transitions between the informal and the formal sector, while the rest is explained by preferences and human capital. Furthermore, I find that skills accumulated in the formal sector are substantially transferable across sectors. That is not true for skills acquired in informal jobs. Finally,
I find that labor market expectations and persistency are an important source driving labor and schooling choices.
"Intergenerational Mobility and the Timing of Parental Investments in children" , (joint with Pedro Carneiro (UCL-IFS), Kjell Salvanes (NHH) and Emma Tominey (York University))

We extend the standard inter-generational mobility literature by modeling individual outcomes as a function of the history of parental income, as opposed to a single measure of parental income. Using data for 500,000 individuals in Norway, we present semi-parametric estimates of the effect of the timing of parental income on outcomes measured when an individual is in his early 20’s. We find that schooling is maximized when permanent income is high, and income is balanced between the early childhood and middle childhood years. There is however some advantage in shifting income from the adolescent period towards the middle years of the child. To interpret our findings we simulate models of parental investment in children with more than one period of childhood, under different assumptions about credit markets and the information sets of parents. Simple models or parental investments in children emphasizing borrowing constraints and uncertainty about income shocks do explain our findings
"Willingness to pay for quality of Nursing Homes" , (joint with Michael Hurd (RAND
Corporation) and Susann Rohwedder (RAND Corporation)).
We study how preferences for the quality of nursing homes could drive low levels of long-term care insurance observed in the United States: if publicly provided nursing homes (Medicaid) are viewed to be equiva- lent in quality to nursing homes that are paid for out-of-pocket, then public and private insurance would be highly substitutable.
We designed an experimental module for the 2012 wave of the Health and Retirement Study, which aimed to elicit those preferences. In the module, respondents are asked to rate four different insurance policies paying the nursing home costs for the remaining years of life, but varying in the monthly premium and in two levels of quality. The monthly premiums vary according to age of the respondent and to the type of policy. Respondents are asked to rate four policy policies varying quality and price one at a time and we estimate the willingness to pay to avoid Medicaid by purchasing insurance that would cover private (non-Medicaid) nursing homes. Our preliminary findings suggest that individuals would be willing to accept an increase of 80% in the monthly premium to avoid long-term care provided by Medicaid.
"The role of beliefs in parental investments and child development: evidence from the impact evaluation of a nationally scaled parenting intervention in Chile , joint with
Paula Bedregal (School of Public Health PUC-Chile), Pedro Carneiro (UCL-IFS), Miguel
Cordero (U. of Bristol) and Emanuela Galasso (World Bank))
We conduct a Randomized Control Trial evaluation of a large-scale community-based parenting program in Chile that attempts to improve parental practices among the poorest households beneficiaries of the primary health care system. The intervention has already been proved to be implemented at scale and is potentially highly cost-effective. We aim at understanding whether this parenting program is able to improve child cognitive and non-cognitive skills by improving parental knowledge and parental stimulation of their children at home. Our work is innovate in three aspects: First, we work with multiple dimensions of parental knowledge and beliefs, cognitive and non-cognitive stimulation, and we study child language, self-control and socio-emotional outcomes. Second, we use the randomization to show the causal effects of such an intervention and to validate a model of change defined by knowledge, practices and child outcomes. And third, we use merge survey and administrative data to assess the cost-effectiveness of such an intervention.
"The role of poverty on child development and schooling performance in a very low income country" , joint with Emanuela Galasso (World Bank), Lia Fernald (School of Public Health, UC Berkeley) and Ann Weber (Infant Studies, Stanford University).
Using a dynamic investment framework, we examine longitudinal patterns of child development and socioeconomic status for a cohort of children surveyed in 2007 (3-6 years old) and 2011 (7- 10 years old) in Madagascar. We find substantial gradients in child development outcomes by maternal education and household wealth, which translate into significant gaps in primary schooling participation and performance in language and maths.
Failing to account for dynamics leads to an overestimation of contemporaneous effects of socio-economic status during school age. Maternal vocabulary accounts for 20% and home stimulation for 30% of the maternal education gap in outcomes, jointly accounting for up to 50% of the gradient.
P RESENTER AT
C ONFERENCES
Ago 2015 Banff/Calgary Empirical Micro Workshop, "Intergenerational Mobility and the
Timing of Parental Income".
Jul 2015 NBER Summer Institute, "Willingness to pay for quality of Nursing Homes in the
United States".
Apr 2015 Michigan Retirement Research Center Workshop, Presenting "The effects of the
2008 Chilean Pension Reform in Labor Supply and Income Inequality".
Dec 2013 Spanish Job Market-Spanish Economic Association (SAEe), Santander , Presenting "Human Capital and Labor Informality in developing countries".
Nov 2013 LACEA-LAMES 2013, Mexico City , Presenting "Human Capital and Labor Informality in developing countries".
Ago 2013 8th IZA/World Bank Conference on Employment and Development, Bonn, Germany , Presenting "Human Capital and Labor Informality in developing countries".
Jul 2013 MOOD 2013, 13th Doctoral workshop in Economic Theory and Econometrics ,
Presenting "Human Capital and Labor Informality in developing countries".

G
RANTS
Nov 2012 LACEA-LAMES 2012, Lima Peru , Presenting "The role of beliefs in parental investments and child development".
Apr 2015: The effect of the 2008 Chilean Pension reform on Consumption inequality, Mental Health and well-being among the elderly. NIA seed grant. (co-PI with Andres Otero)
Jan 2014: The Role of parental knowledge and behavior in child development. Research
Scholarship Bursary. (co-PI with Pedro Carneiro, Emanuela Galasso, Miguel Cordero, and
Paula Bedregal)
2011-2012: Evaluation of a Parenting Intervention in Chile. (co-PI with Pedro Carneiro,
Emanuela Galasso)
R EFERENCES Professor Costas Meghir, E-mail: c.meghir@yale.edu
Professor Orazio Attanasio, E-mail: o.attanasio@ucl.ac.uk
Professor Pedro Carneiro, E-mail: p.carneiro@ucl.ac.uk
Dr. Emanuela Galasso, E-mail: e.galasso@worldbank.org