Working Papers

"Macroeconomic Development, Rural Exodus, and Uneven Industrialization" November 2026 (CEPR DP17086)
with Josep Pijoan-Mas
New version! Revised and Resubmitted to the JPE Macro
We show how internal migrations are a key determinant of the heterogeneous industrialization paths experienced by leading and laggard regions within a country. Focusing on Spain (1940-2000), we find that internal migrations, driven by declining migration costs, fully explain the lack of industrialization of its laggard areas, and accelerated growth at the aggregate level.

"Rural-Urban Migration and Structural Change: A Reinterpretation" March 2026 (it was my JMP)
Revise and Resubmit JPE Macro
Using panel data from Indonesia, I show that most workers switch from agriculture to non-agriculture within rural areas, rather than through migration to urban areas. Armed with a model in which workers choose both their location and their sector of work, I find that frictions to leave agriculture, rather than migration costs, are the main barrier to structural transformation.

"The Life-Cycle of Firms and the Productivity Advantages of Large Cities"
Using Spanish administrative data, I show that firms are more productive and grow more over their life-cycle in larger cities, while they exit at similar rates across cities. I leverage this information to discipline a model where heterogeneous firms make location choices at birth and then receive idiosyncratic productivity shocks over their life-cycle. Using the model, I quantify the contribution of firm sorting to the urban productivity premium and evaluate the effects of place-based and size-dependent policies.