My areas of research are international economics, monetary economics, and development economics. In international economics, I focus on the causes of balance-of-payments crises, financial crises, and the propagation of them across countries - the phenomenon that has been identified in the literature as contagion. I have developed econometric techniques to determine the existence of contagion and the extent of it. Currently I am working with Anna Pavlova to develop theoretical models of multiple assets in general equilibrium to study the interaction between terms of trade, stock markets, exchange rates, and financial constraints. I am also working with Gita Gopinath in a series of papers understanding firm’s international pricing practices.

In monetary economics, I study the behavior of financial markets and their interaction with monetary policy. In particular, my two most recent papers in the area study: (i) how the Federal Reserve in the US determines its interest rate policy when there is an increase in the stock market index, and (ii) what is the impact of monetary policy shocks in asset prices. Currently, I am studying the impact of war related events on asset prices as well as the impact of macroeconomic announcements on the stock market and the yield curve. Most of this research is joined with Brian Sack. We have developed the empirical methodologies to attend the problems of simultaneous equations and errors-in-variables that afflict the data and made impossible the estimation of these questions with standard econometric techniques.

In development economics, I have studied the behavior of the exchange rate when countries implement fiscal reforms, when central banks intervene in the foreign exchange rate market, as well as when there are financial imperfections and capital controls. Currently I am studying the impact of institutions on the income disparities across countries, and also measuring how income levels determine the quality of institutions.

I am currently an associate professor at the Sloan School of Management, MIT, a faculty research fellow of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a visiting professor at IESA. I joined the business school in 1997 and have won three times the "Teacher of the year" award and three times the "Excellence in Teaching" award at MIT. I got my Ph.D. in economics from MIT in 1997, an MBA from IESA (Venezuela) in 1991, and my BS in Electrical Engineer from Universidad Simon Bolivar (Venezuela) in 1984. I am married and have three kids.