Alejandro Rojas-Bernal

Alejandro Rojas-Bernal

Assistant Professor

University of Hawai'i at Manoa, Department of Economics

Welcome to my site!

I am a macroeconomist working in production networks, international finance, and inequality. My job market paper explores how variations in income and consumption distributions affect aggregate misallocation and total factor productivity.

I am an Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa.

Interests
  • Macroeconomics
  • International Finance
  • Production Networks
  • Heterogeneity
  • International Economics
Education
  • PhD in Economics, 2024

    University of British Columbia

  • MA in Economics, 2018

    Universidad de Los Andes

  • BA in Economics, 2016

    Universidad de Los Andes

  • BA in Law, 2016

    Universidad de Los Andes

Working Papers

Inequality and Misallocation under Production Networks - Job Market Paper

In this paper, I develop an aggregation theory for distorted production network economies with heterogeneous households. I provide general decompositions for how the aggregate and distributional effects of shocks are sensitive to underlying consumer and firm heterogeneity. The workers’ value-added over labor income ratios (distortion centralities) gauge the importance of workers in the production of heavily distorted firms and are sufficient statistics for the effect of income distribution variations on TFP. The average distortion centrality faced by a household’s expenditure (expenditure centrality) and a firm’s revenue (revenue centrality) are sufficient statistics for the effect of expenditure variations on TFP. Labor misallocation rises and TFP falls as labor income shifts toward high distortion centrality workers, consumption shifts toward high expenditure centrality households, or demand shifts toward high revenue centrality firms. The reason is that when aggregate expenditure on relatively undistorted firms rises, their labor demand increases, reallocating workers from distorted firms with high marginal productivity to relatively undistorted firms with low marginal productivity. These second-best results show how distributional variations affect aggregate output by changing the aggregate allocation efficiency of workers. I estimate the first production network model with household heterogeneity for the United States. I show that variations in the income distribution have been responsible for 20% of the TFP volatility. Additionally, income distribution variations reduced misallocation between 2001 and 2009, and accentuated misallocation after the Great Recession. Heterogeneities in the production network are essential in explaining income and real consumption inequalities.

  • 2023
  • North American Summer Meeting of the Econometric Society
  • Asian Meeting of the Econometric Society
  • Australasia Meeting of the Econometric Society
  • Canadian Economic Association Conference
  • Lacea Lames 2023
  • Universidad del Rosario
  • Labor, Firms, and Macro Reading Group
  • Banco de La Republica
  • 2024
  • ASSA 2024
  • University of Hawai’i at Manoa
  • Universidad Diego Portales
  • Bank of Canada
  • Teconlogico de Monterrey
  • Fundacao Getulio Vargas - Sao Paulo
  • Tilburg University

Talks

 
 
 
 
 
University of New South Wales
Australasian Meeting of the Econometric Society 2023
August 2023 – August 2023 Sydney, Australia
 
 
 
 
 
Nanyang Technological University
Asian Meeting of the Econometric Society 2023
July 2023 – July 2023 Singapore
 
 
 
 
 
University of California, Los Angeles
North American Meeting of the Econometric Society 2023
June 2023 – June 2023 Los Angeles, California
 
 
 
 
 
University of Manitoba
Canadian Economic Association 2023
June 2023 – June 2023 Winnipeg, Manitoba

Teaching

 
 
 
 
 
Teaching Evaluations
University of British Columbia
August 2019 – June 2023 Vancouver, Canada

Teaching Assistant:

  • International Finance (Ph.D. and Masters): Spring 2023
  • International Macroeconomics and Finance (Undergrad): Spring 2023, Spring 2022
  • Monetary Theory (Undergrad 4th year): Summer 2022, Spring 2021, Spring 2020
  • International Finance (Undergrad 3rd year): Fall 2020, Summer 2021, Fall 2020, Summer 2020, Fall 2019
  • Money and Banking (Undergrad 3rd year): Summer 2023
  • Law and Economics (Undergrad 3rd year): Fall 2021
 
 
 
 
 
Universidad de Los Andes
January 2011 – June 2018 Bogota, Colombia

Teaching Assistant:

  • Advanced Econometrics (Ph.D. and Masters): Spring 2018, Fall 2017, Spring 2017
  • Introduction to Macroeconomics (Undergrad 1st year): Spring 2018, Fall 2017, Spring 2017 Undergrad Teaching Assistant:
  • Financial Derivatives (Undergrad 4th year): Spring 2016
  • Intermediate Econometrics (Undergrad 2nd year): Spring 2016, Fall 2015, Spring 2015
  • Constitutional Hermeneutics (Undergrad 2nd year): Spring 2014
  • General Criminal Law (Undergrad 3rd year): Spring 2014, Spring 2013
  • Special Criminal Law (Undergrad 3rd year): Fall 2013, Fall 2013
  • Constitutional Law (Undergrad 2rd year): Fall 2011
  • Roman Law (Undergrad 2rd year): Spring 2011

Contact