Principal Investigators
Fabio Waltenberg
Professor of Economics, Universidade Federal Fluminense
Fábio Waltenberg is an Associate Professor of Economics at the Universidade Federal Fluminense in Niterói, Brazil, and a researcher at the Center for Studies on Inequality and Development (CEDE). He holds a bachelor’s and a masters degrees in Economics from the Universidade de São Paulo, and a PhD in Economics from the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium. He coordinates the Brazilian team involved in the evaluation of the Citizens’ Basic Income program in Maricá. His research has focused on economic analyses of social policies, with emphasis on education and cash transfer policies.
Sidhya Balakrishnan
Director of Research, Jain Family Institute
As Director of Research for JFI’s Higher Education Finance and Guaranteed Income initiatives, Sidhya leads the research design and analysis for JFI’s basic income pilots and conducts research on the implications and alternatives to student debt. She has previously worked in end-to-end pilot design, implementation, and analysis for government and international development partners at Educational Initiatives, an educational assessment organization in India. She has also worked with international development organizations like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank in different capacities. She holds a masters degree in international affairs with a focus on economic and political development and econometrics from Columbia University, and a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi. At JFI, Sidhya has designed and evaluated pilots and policy with academic and government partners in California, New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.
Johannes Haushofer
Assistant Professor of Economics, Stockholm University; Senior Fellow, Jain Family Institute
Johannes Haushofer is Assistant Professor of Economics at Stockholm University. He is also a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and Founder and Scientific Director of the Busara Center for Behavioral Economics, a research non-profit in Nairobi, Kenya. His research interests lie at the intersection of psychology, behavioral economics, and development economics. His research asks whether poverty has particular psychological consequences, and whether these consequences, in turn, affect economic behavior. He holds a BA in Psychology, Physiology and Philosophy from Oxford, a PhD in Neurobiology from Harvard, a PhD in Economics from Zurich, and was most recently a Prize Fellow in Economics at Harvard and the Jameel Poverty Action Lab at MIT.
Roberta Costa
Research Manager, Jain Family Institute
Roberta Costa is a Ph.D. candidate in Economics at the Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF) and has a MA in Economics from the same university. She works as Research Manager at JFI. Roberta is a fellow at the Center for Studies on Inequality and Development. Her research interests are welfare economics and applied microeconomics, with a focus on economics of education and labor economics.
Researchers
Paul Katz
Vice President for Special Projects, Jain Family Institute
Paul Katz is Vice President for Special Projects at JFI, where he researches basic income, social wealth funds, and the solidarity economy. He coordinates JFI’s work in Brazil, supporting the quantitative side of the Maricá basic income study while leading JFI’s contributions to the qualitative part of the research. Paul holds a Ph.D. in History from Columbia University as well as interdisciplinary degrees in history and literature from Harvard University and in the social sciences from Argentina’s National University of Luján. His work has been supported by fellowships from the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, the Fulbright-Hays Program, Columbia’s Heyman Center for the Humanities, and the Harvard University Committee on Human Rights Studies.
Fernando Freitas
Universidade Federal Fluminense
Fernando is a Ph.D. student in Economics at the Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF), and research manager in Maricá’s Basic Income evaluation. He holds a masters degree in Public Policy and Development at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. Fernando is a fellow at the Center for Studies on Inequality and Development. He previously researched the history and development of cash transfers policies in Brazil, especially Basic Income.
Andrea Gama
Universidade Federal Fluminense
Andrea Gama is a Master's student in Economics at Universidade Federal Fluminense. Previously, she studied a semester at the School of Economics of Tilburg University, in The Netherlands. Andrea is a member of UFF’s Center for Studies on Inequality and Development (CEDE) and lead quantitative researcher on the Maricá Basic Income research team. Her research interests lie in applied microeconomics, social economics, and social programs evaluation.
Jéssica Maldonado
Universidade Federal Fluminense
Jéssica is a Master's student in Economics at the Universidade Federal Fluminense. Member of the university’s Center for Studies on Inequality and Development (CEDE). She works as lead qualitative researcher in Maricá’s Basic Income evaluation. Jéssica is interested in applied microeconomics and social policy evaluations, with an emphasis on cash transfer and labor market policies. Previously, she worked in a “scientific initiation” program in the area of taxation, which won UFF’s Vasconcellos Torres Award.
Steve Nuñez
Lead Researcher on Guaranteed Income, Jain Family Institute
As the Lead Researcher on Guaranteed Income (GI), Dr. Stephen Nuñez leads JFI’s research into guaranteed income policy, testing its practical application and design by taking on empirical work that offers unique opportunities to understand how GI programs affect individuals and communities. He has also supported modeling work to understand economy-wide effects of GI policy, and the implications for different approaches to financing. In Maricá, Steve will cover the study of inflation-related impacts.
Before coming to JFI, Steve was Research Manager at ImpactMatters and a Research Associate in MDRC’s Low-Wage Workers and Communities policy area. He brings over a decade of experience in research and program evaluation, with special expertise in housing, workforce, and community development. Steve holds a PhD in sociology, studying social network analysis with sociologist Mark Granovetter. He also completed a masters in economics at Stanford University, and a bachelors degree in politics from Princeton University. Follow Steve on Twitter here.
Political Liaison
Leandro Ferreira
Leandro is the head of the Brazilian Basic Income Network and is part of the Maricá’s Basic Income evaluation team. He holds a masters degree in Public Policy from Universidade Federal do ABC and a bachelor’s degree in Public Policy from Universidade de São Paulo. His research interests are cash transfers and theories of change in public policy. He is a fellow at the Center for Studies on Inequality and Development and has professional experience in public service from the Senate of Brazil, the City Government of Sao Paulo, and the City Council of Sao Paulo.
Research Assistants
Marcella Cartledge
Marcella is a Research Associate at the Jain Family Institute working on the Guaranteed Income initiative. In addition to working at JFI, Marcella is a PhD student in economics at the University of Virginia, where she is interested in researching topics in behavioral, development and labor economics. Previously, Marcella worked as an economic analyst at TD Securities and a research assistant at the London School of Economics. She also holds an MA in Economics from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Arizona State University.
Sara Restrepo
Sara is a former fellow at the Jain Family Institute working on the Guaranteed Income initiative. She is currently a researcher at the Development Innovation Lab at the University of Chicago. She holds an MPP and MA in Economics from Universidad del Rosario, from Bogotá, Colombia. She has previously worked at the InterAmerican Development Bank, Innovations for Poverty Action, and the Central Bank of Colombia. She has worked on RCTs looking to reduce the gap in STEM between K-12 girls and boys, the RECOVR project, and measuring the impact of VAT devolution to the poorest in expenditure outcomes.
Ege Aksu
Ege is a Research Fellow at the Jain Family Institute working on the Guaranteed Income initiative and other empirical research. She is currently a fifth-year PhD candidate in Economics at the CUNY Graduate Center. Her research interests lie at the intersection of development, health, labor, and demographic economics with a particular focus on health and labor policies in developing countries. In addition to working at JFI, Ege is a research assistant at the National Bureau of Economic Research where she works on health taxes. She holds an MA in Economics and a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering both from Bogazici University in Turkey.
Yunjie Xie
Yunjie Xie is a Junior Research Fellow at the Jain Family Institute working on the Guaranteed Income initiative and other empirical research. She is currently a 2nd-year Master’s Student in Economics at Columbia University. Her research interests lie in development economics with a particular focus on poverty and inequality issues in developing countries. In addition to working at JFI, Yunjie is a research intern at Sustainable Development Solutions Network where she works on building up the long-term macroeconomic model for developing countries. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics with a major in taxation from the Renmin University of China.
Anna Isabela Fernandes
Anna Isabela Fernandes is a Master's student in Economics at the Universidade Federal Fluminense and holds a bachelor's degree in Economic Sciences from the same university. She is interested in evaluation of social policy, with an emphasis on income transfer programs, the labor market and gender. Alongside her work on the Basic Income program in Maricá (RJ), she works as a research assistant on the evaluation team of the Moeda Social Arariboia program in Niterói (RJ).
Technical Assistants
Iago Esturião Mendes
Iago is an undergraduate student in Economics at the Universidade Federal Fluminense. A member of the Center for Studies in Development and Inequality (CEDE), he is interested in the areas of welfare economics, labor economics and social policies, and has developed “scientific initiation” work in the area of fiscal equity.
Patrick Linhares Dias
Patrick Linhares Dias is an undergraduate student in Economics at the Universidade Federal Fluminense. Member of the Center for Studies in Development and Inequality (CEDE). He is interested in the areas of welfare economics, social policies and inequality.
Other Partners
We are grateful to our partners in the city of Maricá. Our work is supported by Adalton da Motta Mendonça, Maricá’s Secretary of the Solidarity Economy. Diego Zeidan, the former Secretary of the Solidarity Economy, supported our work in its earliest phases. The Banco Mumbuca and the Instituto Darcy Ribeiro worked alongside our researchers. Fabiano Horta, the mayor of Maricá, and Washington Quaqua, the former mayor, have made the project possible through their vision and leadership.
We are also collaborating closely with the Rede Brasileira de Renda Básica (Brazilian Basic Income Network), a group of academics and activists working to expand basic income programs across and beyond Brazil. The RBRB is led by president Leandro Ferreira. Its honorary president, three-term federal senator and current São Paulo city councilor Eduardo Suplicy, has provided invaluable guidance on this project, and co-chairs our advisory board.
About JFI
Founded in 2015, JFI is a nonpartisan applied research organization that works on designing more equitable social and economic policy in theory and practice. JFI has three main initiatives: 1) guaranteed income, 2) higher education finance, 3) digital ethics and governance. In guaranteed income, we build pilots, design policy, and conduct research on guaranteed income alongside international partners in government, philanthropy, and academia. Our research focuses on microeconomic and macroeconomic effects; meta-analyses of cash transfer studies around the world; and, most extensively, on policy design and implementation. We partner with governments in the US and abroad to build and implement pilots and policies that will answer some of the most important remaining questions about direct cash transfers. Our partners have included the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration, the Stanford Basic Income Lab, the Economic Security Project, the Russell Sage Foundation, and task forces in Chicago and Newark.
About UFF
Founded in 1960, the Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF) is a public institution that belongs to the federal system of Brazilian higher education. Its headquarters are located in the city of Niterói and there are other campuses in various cities throughout the state of Rio de Janeiro. Offering more than 130 undergraduate courses of study and another 130 graduate ones, in a wide range of fields of knowledge, UFF is one of the largest Brazilian universities in terms of the number of students enrolled, having doubled in size in the past decade. UFF is nationally and internationally classified as a distinguished university, achieving excellence in research in areas as distinct as history, geosciences, literature, chemistry, communications, and physics. Associated with the Graduate Program in Economics, the Center for Studies on Inequality and Development at UFF (CEDE-UFF), a research group coordinated by Fábio Waltenberg, will host the Brazilian team responsible for conducting the evaluation of Maricá’s Citizens’ Basic Income program.