Murphy-Economics Seminar: Alejandro Estefan

Each semester The Murphy Institute sponsors a series of seminars hosted by the Tulane Department of Economics that provides an opportunity for faculty, researchers, and economists to present their latest research and pressing issues related to topics in economics.

Alejandro Estefan is assistant professor of development economics in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. Before coming to Notre Dame, Estefan was a research scholar at the Institute for Fiscal Studies in London and the Center for the Economics of Human Development at the University of Chicago. His previous professional experience includes working as a policy analyst at the Presidency of the Republic of Mexico. He completed his PhD at University College London in 2019, where the Economic and Social Research Council of the United Kingdom supported his doctoral research. 

The main focus of Estefan’s research is to understand the causes of economic development to inform policy decision-making. He studies many essential topics in the field of development economics, including the factors lifting individuals out of poverty; the effects of public investments in schooling; female labor force participation and its impact on gender violence; and state capacity and tax revenue collection. 

Estefan’s research approach relies on the application of rigorous econometric techniques to uncover the crucial causal mechanisms underlying economic development, through the analysis of longitudinal datasets and the use of structural theory. To this end, his research emphasizes multilateral collaboration between academic institutions, local authorities, and independent international research institutes to enable access to high-quality administrative records.