Luis Jaramillo

Luis studies how trade and industrial policy shapes productive development in developing countries, East Asia and Latin America in particular. He will use the fellowship to complete two research projects. In the first one, he studies how South Korea’s first “mission-oriented” R&D program shaped innovation and real outcomes after its implementation between 1992 and 2001. Unlike most work in this area, the setting features a large, government-directed R&D funding shock akin to the United States’ CHIPS and Science Act. In the second one, which is joint work with Melissa Dell and Pablo Querubín, he studies when and how trade barriers either foster or hinder long-term economic development. He does so through a comparative analysis of trade policy and 20th-century development in Mexico, Taiwan, and mainland China. Looking to shed light on how political economy shapes infant industry protection, the project exploits that while in Mexico the single party state deeply entwined with economic interests, most mainland industrialists moved to Hong Kong and severed ties with the KMT after its retreat to Taiwan, likely removing pressure to skew trade protection towards existing industries.