Fellows

Daniel Araújo is a PhD candidate in Economics at UBC. His research focuses on income inequality and intergenerational mobility, particularly emphasizing the dynamics of modern slavery and the long-term impacts of economic policies. Daniel has published in leading journals such as The Journal of Health Economics and The Journal of Development Economics. His work aims to understand the causes of economic disparities and inform policies promoting economic equity.

Angel Espinoza is a is a PhD candidate in Economics at UBC. His research interests lie at the intersection of labor economics and international trade, with a particular focus on how these fields relate to income and wealth disparities. Angel is particularly interested in conducting research with clear implications for policy making. His current research agenda includes examining the distributional effects of minimum wages and rules of origin in trade agreements, analyzing the impact of union democratization in Mexico, and exploring the effects of trade-driven robot adoption on labor markets. He is also actively engaged in volunteer work, having founded ITAM Construye, an organization in Mexico dedicated to strengthening social cohesion through community service.

Daniel Guzmán is a PhD candidate in Economics at UBC. His research lies at the intersection of labour, macroeconomics, and public finance. His ongoing work examines how an increase in the value-added tax (VAT) on professional service purchases affects firms’ outsourcing decisions, as well as its broader equity and efficiency implications. He previously worked at the Central Bank of Chile and the Inter-American Development Bank. He holds an MA and a BSc in Economics from Universidad de los Andes (Colombia); an MSc in Quantitative Finance; and BSc degrees in Economics and in International Trade & Finance from Universidad del Rosario.

Prerna Kundu is a PhD candidate in Economics at UBC. Her research examines the legal and social determinants of wealth inequality, with a focus on gender and land ownership in India. In her current work, she builds a novel dataset of over 7 million digitized land records to study how inheritance law reforms shape women’s asset ownership. In related work, she is investigating the micro-dynamics of rural land markets, and the role of social norms in women’s economic seclusion. Prerna’s research agenda is shaped by extensive field experience, including her time as a Research Associate at J-PAL South Asia. She is the co-founder of Women in Econ/Policy, an Indian nonprofit advancing mentorship and visibility for women in economics and development.

Sebastian Melo-Martin is a PhD candidate in Economics at UBC. His research explores how firms adjust to trade shocks and how these adjustments shape workers’ earnings inequality across developed and middle-income countries. Sebastian is currently working on understanding the role of labour market institutions, particularly unions, in mediating workers’ wage and employment responses to external demand shocks. His work also examines the spillover effects of major economic transformations, such as the expansion of the lithium sector in Chile, on connected firms and workers throughout production networks. Before joining UBC, he worked at the Chief Economist Office for Latin America and the Caribbean at The World Bank on labour and trade-related research projects. He studied at Universidad de los Andes in Colombia.

Xiomara Pulido is a PhD candidate in Economics at UBC. Her research explores how environmental policies and climate shocks shape income and wealth inequality. Her current projects include analyzing the impact of carbon taxes on firms’ decisions and the distributional effects on owners as well as high- and low-skill workers in Canada. She is also studying how temperature shocks affect educational outcomes, such as standardized test performance, access to higher education, and entry into the formal labor market, among students from different income backgrounds in Colombia. She previously worked at the Inter-American Development Bank and holds an MA and a BSc in Economics from Universidad de los Andes (Colombia).

Ratzanyel Rincón is a PhD Candidate in Economics at UBC. His research focuses on studying how labour regulations and public policy affect inequality in the labour market. His current work examines the effects of union democratization, the interaction between wage subsidies and minimum wage policies, and immigrant entrepreneurship. He is also interested in causal inference methods. Before joining the Ph.D. program at UBC, Ratzanyel worked as an economist at Banco de México. He holds a B.S. in Physics and Mathematics from Instituto Politécnico Nacional and an M.A. in Economics from El Colegio de México.

Carla Srebot Roeder is a PhD Candidate in Economics at UBC. Her research examines how labor market institutions influence inequality and worker mobility. Her current work investigates the roots of informality in a developing economy, focusing on how limited outside options and workplace amenities affect labor market power, the gender pay gap, and job mobility. More broadly, she studies how policies and the actions of workplace leaders can reshape labor markets and reduce gender disparities. Together, her projects highlight the interplay between informality, labor regulation, and managerial practices in shaping economic inequality.