Research Bio

Nano Barahona is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, and a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His main research interests lie in the fields of industrial organization and public economics. 

His research focuses on studying and quantifying the effects of government policies on individuals' outcomes and welfare. He is particularly interested in understanding the consequences that can arise from large-scale policy implementations due to equilibrium responses. In his research, he combines reduced-form evidence that exploits quasi-experimental variation induced by policy interventions with structural models that help to connect the data to a theoretical framework. Through the lenses of the model, he learns how equilibrium forces affect policy outcomes and simulates counterfactuals that inform policymakers about the effectiveness of their policies and that provide lessons about how to design them better. His work has been published in leading journals, such as the Review of Economic Studies, Econometrica, and the Quarterly Journal of Economics.

Barahona received his PhD in Economics from Stanford University in 2021. He has received awards for early contributions to the field and has advised policymakers on regulatory design in health and education. 

Research Expertise and Interest

industrial organization, public policy, education