Jimena Rico-Straffon

I recently completed my Ph.D. in Economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. I will join the Department of Public Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as an Assistant Professor in July 2026.

My research lies at the intersection of environmental, labor, and development economics. I use quasi-experimental methods and geospatial analysis to examine how environmental and infrastructure shocks shape economic behavior, labor markets, and inequality, drawing on granular panel data from household surveys, administrative records, and remote sensing.

One strand of my current research studies how urban piped-water shortages affect hours worked, documenting heterogeneous impacts by gender and job formality. A complementary line of work evaluates forest-management and land-use policies using satellite imagery and difference-in-differences estimators, with findings published in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management and conservation journals.