Alfonso Flores-Lagunes

Alfonso Flores-Lagunes is a professor of economics at the Maxwell School and a senior research associate in the Center for Policy Research. He has also been a research fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) since 2008. Flores-Lagunes has held faculty appointments at the State University of New York at Binghamton, the University of Florida and the University of Arizona. He has been a visiting fellow in both the Industrial Relations Section and the Department of Economics of Princeton University, and visiting scholar and lecturer at Cornell, Ohio State, LISER (Luxembourg), and the Central Bank of Mexico. He is an associate editor of the Journal of Business and Economic Statistics and the Latin American Economic Review.

Flores-Lagunes’ main research interest is on methods for estimation of causal effects that are relevant to the evaluation of government programs. He also has a keen interest on the economics of education and educational policies, and on methodologies to analyze data distributed over space, such as those data arising from interrelated choices by geographical jurisdictions. His academic work has been published in highly regarded general interest and field journals such as The Review of Economics and Statistics, The Economic Journal, Journal of Human Resources, Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, Journal of Applied Econometrics, and Review of Financial Studies. He regularly serves as referee for academic journals, academic publishers, and granting agencies such as the National Science Foundation.

An important government program evaluated by Flores-Lagunes is the U.S. federal Job Corps training program for disadvantaged youth. Among other aspects of the program, he has analyzed (i) the apparent lack of effects of Job Corps on the earnings of Hispanics eligible participants (relative to other racial and ethnic groups); (ii) the causal earnings effects of different lengths of exposure to academic and vocational instruction within Job Corps; (iii) the causal effects on wages (net of employment effects) of the program on different demographic groups of eligible participants; and (iv) the relative effectiveness of Job Corps training leading to degree attainment relative to other components of the program. 

Other public programs and topics analyzed by Flores-Lagunes are: (a) the incidence in and intensity of food insecurity experienced by different demographic groups over the Great Recession; (b) the effects of the availability of health insurance programs such as Medicaid; (c) the interplay of genetic predisposition and education on obesity and mental health; (d) the effects of military service and conscription policies on incarcerations and health outcomes; (e) the national job training program for the unemployed in South Korea; and (f) a large-scale and long-standing government program for the unemployed in Luxembourg.

Flores-Lagunes’ research has received funding from the National Science Foundation. In addition, he has been invited to give workshops for public policy professionals on program evaluation topics in Luxembourg; and selections of his research have been employed in workshops sponsored by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

He holds a B.A. in economics from Monterrey Institute of Technology (ITESM) in Mexico, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from The Ohio State University.

Evaluation of public programs, causal inference, economics of education and educational policies, spatial econometrics

Co-Investigator. “Genes, Education, and Gene-Education Interactions in Obesity and Mental Health,” with Vikesh Amin, Principal Investigator, Carlos A. Flores, Co-Principal Investigator, Jere Behrman, Co-Principal Investigator and H-P Kohler, Co-Principal Investigator. Funded by NIH. 2018-2021.

Co-Investigator. “Work Transitions in a Dynamic Labor Market,” Collaborative effort with the iSchool and Principal Investigator, Martha A. Garcia-Murillo. Funded by the Collaboration for Unprecedented Success and Excellence (CUSE) Grant Program. 2018-2020.

Co-Investigator. “Preparing for a Post-Work Future?” Collaborative effort with the iSchool and Principal Investigator, Martha A. Garcia-Murillo. Funded by the Collaboration for Unprecedented Success and Excellence (CUSE) Grant Program. 2018-2020.

Selected Papers

“Bounds on Average and Quantile Treatment Effects on Duration Outcomes under Censoring, Selection, and Noncompliance” (with G. Blanco, C.A. Flores and X. Chen). Forthcoming, Journal of Business and
Economic Statistics.

“The Effect of Education on Health: Evidence from the 1997 Compulsory Schooling Reform in Turkey.”  B.H. Baltagi and H.M. Karatas. Regional Science and Urban Economics, Volume 77, July 2019, Pages 205-221.

“The Differential Incidence and Severity of Food Insecurity by Racial, Ethnic, and Immigrant Groups Over the Great Recession in the United States” (with H. Jales, J. Liu and N. Wilson), American Economic
Review P&P, 108(3), May 2018, pp. 379-83.
 
“An Estimator for Discrete-Choice Models with Spatial Lag Dependence Using Large Samples, with an Application to Land-Use Conversions” (with C. Carrión-Flores and L. Guci), Regional Science and Urban
Economics, 2018, 69:77-93.

“Going Beyond LATE: Bounding Average Treatment Effects of Job Corps Training.” X. Chen and C.A. Flores. Journal of Human Resources, 2018, Vol. 53, No. 4: 1050-1099.

“The Effect of Degree Attainment on Crime: Evidence from a Randomized Social Experiment." V. Amin, C.A. Flores, and D.J. Parisian, Economics of Education Review, Vol. 54 (2016), pp. 259-273.

“A Spatial Model of School District Open Enrollment Choice." D. Brasington and L. Guci, Regional Science and Urban Economics, Vol. 56 (2016), pp. 1-18.

“Partial Identification of Local Average Treatment Effects with an Invalid Instrument." C.A. Flores, Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, Vol. 31, No. 4 (October, 2013), pp. 534-545.

“The Effects of Job Corps Training on Wages of Adolescents and Young Adults.” G. Blanco and C.A. Flores, American Economic Review (P&P), Vol. 103, No. 3 (May, 2013), pp. 418-22.

“Bounds on the Quantile Treatment Effects of Job Corps on Wages." G. Blanco and C.A. Flores, Journal of Human Resources, Vol. 48, No. 3 (2013), pp. 659-701.

“Estimation of Sample Selection Models with Spatial Dependence." K. Schnier, Journal of Applied Econometrics, Vol. 27, No 2 (March, 2012), pp. 173–204.

“Estimating the Effects of Length of Exposure to Instruction in a Training Program: The Case of Job Corps." C.A. Flores, A. Gonzalez and T. Neumann, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 94, No. 1 (February, 2012), pp. 153–171.

“Learning but not Earning? The Impact of Job Corps Training for Hispanic Youths." A. Gonzalez and T. Neumann, Economic Inquiry, Vol. 48, No. 3 (July, 2010), pp. 651-667.

“Interpreting Degree Effects in the Returns to Education." A. Light, Journal of Human Resources, Vol. 45, No. 2 (Spring, 2010), pp. 439-467.

“Finite Sample Evidence of IV Estimators Under Weak Instruments.” Journal of Applied Econometrics, Vol. 22, No. 3 (April, 2007), pp. 677-694.