Published research

In English:

Books

Venezuela before Chávez: Anatomy of an economic collapse. (co-edited with Ricardo Hausmann), Penn State University Press, 2013.

Journal Articles

• “Toward Sustainable Human Development in Venezuela: Diagnosis, Challenges and Economic Strategy.” (with Guillermo Guerrero), Revista Tempo Do Mundo, 23:25-343.
• “Cleaning up the kitchen sink: Specification tests and average derivative estimators for growth econometrics,” (with Cameron Shelton) Journal of Macroeconomics 38B:260-73, December 2013.
• “Caught in a Poverty Trap? Testing for Single vs. Multiple Equilibrium Models of Growth,” (with Cameron Shelton) Journal of Globalization and Development 3(2):1-25, March 2013.
• “The HDI 2010: new controversies, old critiques,” (with Jeni Klugman and HyungJin Choi), Journal of Economic Inequality, 9(2): 249-288, June 2011.
  • See also “Response to Martin Ravallion,” Journal of Economic Inequality 9(3): 497-499., September 2011.
• “The Price of Political Opposition: Evidence from Venezuela’s Maisanta,” (with Edward Miguel, Chang-Tai Hsieh and Daniel Ortega), American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 3 (April 2011): 196-214.
• “Is there a Numbers vs. Rights Trade-Off in Immigration Policy? What the Data Say,” (with Mathew Cummins), Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, 11(2), July 2010.
  • See also “Rejoinder to Martin Ruhs,” Journal of Human Development and Capabilities 11(2), July 2010
• “What Makes Growth Shared? On the Political Economy of Inclusive Development,” Yifu Lin Justin and Boris Pleskovic,eds. Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics 2009, Washington: The World Bank, 2010.
• “Anarchy, State, and Dystopia: Venezuelan Economic Institutions before the Advent of Oil,” (with Adam J. Gomolin), Bulletin of Latin American Research 28(1), January 2009, pp. 102-21.
• “Freed from Illiteracy? A Closer Look at Venezuela’s Robinson Campaign,” (with Daniel Ortega), Economic Development and Cultural Change, 57(1) October 2008, pp. 1-30 (lead article).
• “Venezuela’s Revolution in Decline,” World Policy Journal, 25(1) Spring 2008, pp. 45-58.
• “An Empty Revolution: The Unfulfilled Promises of Hugo Chávez,” Foreign Affairs 87(2), March/April 2008.
  • Discussed by The Economist (2/28/08).
  • See also my response to Venezuela’s Ambassador to the US in “Revolutionary Road? Debating Venezuela’s Progress,” Foreign Affairs, 87(4), July/August 2008.
• “The Anarchy of Numbers: Understanding the Evidence on Venezuelan Economic Growth,” Canadian Journal of Development Studies XXVII(4), 2006.
• “The Political Economy of Investment in Human Capital,” (with José Pineda), Economics of Governance. 7(2), 2006.
• “Inequality, Redistribution and Rent-Seeking,” Economics and Politics, Vol. 16 (November), 2004.
• “Trade Policy and Economic Growth: A Skeptic’s Guide to the Cross-National Evidence” (with Dani Rodrik), NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2000.
  • Reprinted in Winters, Alan (2007) The WTO, Poverty and Inequality. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
  • Reprinted in Greenaway, David, Holger Görg, and Richard Kneller(2008), Globalization and Productivity, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
  • Discussed by The Economist (7/1/1999).
• “Why Do Resource-Abundant Economies Grow More Slowly?” (with Jeffrey Sachs), Journal of Economic Growth, September 1999.
  • Reprinted in Pineda, José and Francisco Sáez, eds. (2006) Crecimiento económico en Venezuela: Bajo el signo del petróleo. Caracas: Banco Central de Venezuela.
• “Does Distributional Skewness Lead to Redistribution? Evidence from the United States”, Economics and Politics, July 1999.

Chapters in books

• “The Rise and Fall of the Venezuelan Economy.” (with Dorothy Kronick) in Valencia, Felipe, (ed.) Roots of Underdevelopment: A New Economic (and Political) History of Latin America and the Caribbean, forthcoming, Palgrave/Macmillan.
• “Why Did Venezuelan Growth Collapse?” (with Ricardo Hausmann) in Hausmann, R. and Rodríguez, F. (2013) Venezuela before Chávez: Anatomy of an economic collapse.
• “Public investment and productivity growth in the Venezuelan Manufacturing Industry,” (with José Pineda) in Hausmann, R. and Rodríguez, F. (2013) Venezuela before Chávez: Anatomy of an economic collapse.
• “Curse or Blessing? Natural Resources and Human Development” (with José Pineda), Handbook of Latin American Economics edited by Jaime Ros and J. A. Ocampo, Oxford University Press.
• “Understanding Fiscal Expansions,” in Roy, Rathin and Heuty, Antoine, eds. (2008) Fiscal Space: Policy Options for Financing Human Development. Earthscan.
• “Plenty of Room? Fiscal Space in a Resource-Abundant Economy” (with Maria A. Moreno) in Roy, Rathin and Heuty, Antoine, eds. (2008) Fiscal Space: Policy Options for Financing Human Development. Earthscan.
• “Does One Size Fit All In Policy Reform? Cross-National Evidence and its Implications for Latin America,” in Scott Mainwaring and Tim Scully, Jr., eds. (2008) Democratic Governability in Latin America, Stanford University Press.
• “Trade and Development,” in Ros, Jaime and Amitava Dutt (2008), International Handbook of Development Economics. Edward Elgar, Volume II, pp. 3-15.
• “Washington Consensus” in Stearns, Peter (ed.) Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World, Oxford University Press, 2008, pp. 548-9.
• “Growth Collapses,” (with Ricardo Hausmann and Rodrigo Wagner) in Carmen Reinhart, Andrés Velasco and Carlos Vegh, eds. Money, Crises, and Transition: Essays in Honor of Guillermo Calvo. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2008, p. 377-428.
• “Growth Empirics in a Complex World: A Guide for Applied Economists and Policymakers,” in J. A. Ocampo, Jomo K. S. and Rob Vos, eds, Growth Divergences: Explaining Differences in Economic Performance, New York: Zed Books, 2007. 5
• “Openness and Growth: What Have We Learned?” in J. A. Ocampo, Jomo K. S. and Rob Vos, eds, Growth Divergences: Explaining Differences in Economic Performance, New York: Zed Books, 2007.
• “Have Collapses in Infrastructure Spending led to Cross-Country Divergence in Per Capita GDP?” in J. A. Ocampo, Jomo K. S. and Rob Vos, eds, Growth Divergences: Explaining Differences in Economic Performance, New York: Zed Books, 2007.
• “Factor Shares and Resource Booms: Accounting for the Evolution of Venezuelan Inequality” in Cornia, G. A., ed. Inequality, Growth, and Poverty in an Era of Liberalization and Globalization, Oxford University Press, 2004.
• “Labor and the Politics of Human Capital Accumulation” in Posusney, Marsha and Cook, Linda, Privatization and Labor: Responses and Consequences in Global Perspective, Edward Elgar, 2003.

Short Articles, Comments, and Book Reviews.

• “Review of Free Trade Reimagined: The World Division of Labor and the Method of Economics by Roberto Mangabeira Unger,” Journal of Economic Literature, XLVI(4), December 2008, pp. 1004-1015.
• “Review of A Year without ‘Made in China’: One Family’s True Life Adventurein the Global Economy by Sara Bongiorni,” Journal of Economic Literature, XLVI(4), December 2008, pp. 989-991.
• “What Can We Learn About the Real World from Growth Regressions?” Challenge, July-August 2008.
• “Venezuela: The Emperor Wants New Clothes,” Economic and Political Weekly, December 1, 2007.
• “Economic Policies of the New Radical Left Will Fail,” Americas Quarterly, Fall 2007.
• “Sharing the Oil Wealth? Appraising the effects of Venezuela’s social programs,”LASA Forum. Winter 2007.
• “Comment on Rodríguez-Clare” Economía 6(1), 2006, pp.30-36.
• “Comment on Hausmann and Rodrik” Economía 6(1), 2006, pp. 90-98.
• Review of Globalization and Progressive Economic Policy by Dean Baker, Gerald Epstein and Robert Pollin, Economica, Volume 68 Issue 272, November 2001.