As the first wave of COVID-19 infections advances across the globe, more data becomes available that can help us better understand where we are, how we arrived here, and what may be on the horizon. This blog post explores what widely available data can tell us about how the much-cited curve of infections has progressed in different regions, and where Latin American and … [Read more...] about Where is Latin America and the Caribbean on the COVID-19 Curve?
Juan Pablo Chauvin
Juan Pablo Chauvin is a Research Economist in the Research Department of the Inter-American Development Bank. He is also an associate at the Center for International Development at Harvard University. His research focuses on the economic development of cities and regions, with a focus on understanding the connections between labor markets, housing markets, and the industrial composition of places. In the past, he has been a consultant with the German Technical Cooperation Agency (GiZ), the World Bank, the OECD and the private sector; advising local and national governments in South America, Asia, the MENA region and South East Europe. He has also been an instructor at the Harvard Kennedy School and at Ecuadorian Universities. He holds a PhD in Public Policy and a Masters in Public Administration - International Development from Harvard, a Masters in Public Policy from FLACSO - Ecuador, and B.A.s in Sociology and Economics from Universidad San Francisco de Quito.
Big Data: New Opportunities and Challenges for Urban Research
Fifteen years ago, researchers were restricted to using surveys, censuses and basic administrative data when they examined cities and local policies. But those methods have real limitations. Surveys can be prohibitively expensive. Censuses may be out of date and administrative data often fail to represent the population as a whole. Today, we live in a radically different … [Read more...] about Big Data: New Opportunities and Challenges for Urban Research
Migration Can Shape Local Development Policies in Unexpected Ways
When Brazil's government decided in 1967 to create a free trade zone in Manaus, it had glittering visions of Amazonian development. Located at the meeting point of two tributaries of the Amazon river, the so-called "City of the Forest" had fallen on hard times since the end of the rubber boom nearly a century before. Generous reductions in import tariffs and other tax breaks, … [Read more...] about Migration Can Shape Local Development Policies in Unexpected Ways
Who Benefits from Job Creation in Cities?
When it comes to urban economic development, everything is a question of tradeoffs. There are, as economists like to say, "no free lunches." Consider California. The astronomical wages paid by firms like Google, Apple and other digital firms draw thousands of people to the Silicon Valley/San Francisco area, and the high wages of the Hollywood studios lure people to Los … [Read more...] about Who Benefits from Job Creation in Cities?