Benjamín Nicolas Leiva Crispi

Benjamin Leiva is a Research Fellow at J-PAL LAC, where he coordinates the relationship between J-PAL LAC and the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala (UVG). His main goal is to leverage the collaboration between both organizations and promote evidence-based policy making in Guatemala and, potentially, other Central American countries. To do this, Benjamin is developing institutional partnerships, supporting fundraising, doing matchmaking for research projects in Guatemala and identifying innovative ways to involve a broader community of students, practitioners and academics in Central America to collaborate with J-PAL's mission. 

Benjamin works as a professor at UVG, having a part time appointment for teaching micro and macroeconomics and part time appointment at UVG´s Sustainable Economic Observatory for supporting J-PAL and UVG in this collaboration. He has a PhD from the University of Georgia and BSc from the Universidad de Chile. His academic work mostly covers issues related to energy and economics, natural resource economics, and sustainability, with recent publications in Utilities Policy, Heliyon and Energy Economics.