Publications
Organized crime and criminal governance
"Statebuilding in the City: An Experiment in Civilian Alternatives to Policing" (with Christopher Blattman, Gustavo Duncan and Benjamin Lessing). Forthcoming at American Political Science Review.
NBER Working Paper · SocArXiv Working Paper · Nota de Política EAFIT · EDI Research Videos
"Gang rule: Understanding and countering criminal governance" (with Christopher Blattman, Gustavo Duncan and Benjamin Lessing). Review of Economic Studies, 92(3), 1497–1531. (2025)
Paper · Replication · Twitter thread (EN) · Twitter thread (ES) · Foco Económico · La Silla Vacía
"Production and persistence of criminal skills: Evidence from a high-crime context" (with Maria A. Escobar and Martin Vanegas-Arias). Journal of Development Economics, 160. (2023)
"Do better prisons reduce recidivism? Evidence from a prison construction program" Review of Economics and Statistics, 104(6), 1256–1272. (2022)
Paper · Replication · VoxDev · El Espectador · Twitter thread
Policing and public safety
"The Perils of Military Policing" Nature Human Behaviour, 7, 843–844. Invited commentary. (2023)
"Community policing in the developing world" Science, 374(6571), 1046–1047. Invited commentary. (2021)
"Place-based interventions at scale: The direct and spillover effects of policing and city services on crime" (with Chris Blattman, Donald Green and Daniel Ortega). Journal of the European Economic Association, 19(4), 2022–2051. (2021)
"The Deterrent Effects of Surveillance Cameras on Crime" (with Santiago Gómez and Daniel Mejía). Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 40(2), 553–571. (2021)
"Hot Spots Policing in a High Crime Environment: An Experimental Evaluation in Medellín" (with Daniela Collazos, Eduardo García, Daniel Mejía and Daniel Ortega). Journal of Experimental Criminology, 17, 473–506. (2021)
Illicit crops and drug policy
"The role of land property rights in the war on illicit crops: Evidence from Colombia" (with Juan Carlos Muñoz and Jesse D'Anjou). World Development, 103, 268–283. (2018)