Alfonso Flores-Lagunes

• 2024 Spring
  • ECN 623 Econometrics III
  • ECN 451 Labor Economics
• 2023 Fall
  • ECN 451 Labor Economics
• 2023 Spring
  • ECN 623 Econometrics III
  • ECN 451 Labor Economics
• 2022 Fall
  • ECN 751 Labor Economics I
• 2022 Spring
  • ECN 623 Econometrics III

Alfonso Flores-Lagunes is a professor of economics at the Maxwell School and a senior research associate in the Center for Policy Research. He has also been a research fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) since 2008. Flores-Lagunes has held faculty appointments at the State University of New York at Binghamton, the University of Florida and the University of Arizona. He has been a visiting fellow in both the Industrial Relations Section and the Department of Economics of Princeton University, and visiting scholar and lecturer at Cornell, Ohio State, LISER (Luxembourg), and the Central Bank of Mexico. He is an associate editor of the Journal of Business and Economic Statistics and the Latin American Economic Review.

Flores-Lagunes’ main research interest is on methods for estimation of causal effects that are relevant to the evaluation of government programs. He also has a keen interest on the economics of education and educational policies, and on methodologies to analyze data distributed over space, such as those data arising from interrelated choices by geographical jurisdictions. His academic work has been published in highly regarded general interest and field journals such as The Review of Economics and Statistics, The Economic Journal, Journal of Human Resources, Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, Journal of Applied Econometrics, and Review of Financial Studies. He regularly serves as referee for academic journals, academic publishers, and granting agencies such as the National Science Foundation.

An important government program evaluated by Flores-Lagunes is the U.S. federal Job Corps training program for disadvantaged youth. Among other aspects of the program, he has analyzed (i) the apparent lack of effects of Job Corps on the earnings of Hispanics eligible participants (relative to other racial and ethnic groups); (ii) the causal earnings effects of different lengths of exposure to academic and vocational instruction within Job Corps; (iii) the causal effects on wages (net of employment effects) of the program on different demographic groups of eligible participants; and (iv) the relative effectiveness of Job Corps training leading to degree attainment relative to other components of the program. 

Other public programs and topics analyzed by Flores-Lagunes are: (a) the incidence in and intensity of food insecurity experienced by different demographic groups over the Great Recession; (b) the effects of the availability of health insurance programs such as Medicaid; (c) the interplay of genetic predisposition and education on obesity and mental health; (d) the effects of military service and conscription policies on incarcerations and health outcomes; (e) the national job training program for the unemployed in South Korea; and (f) a large-scale and long-standing government program for the unemployed in Luxembourg.

Flores-Lagunes’ research has received funding from the National Science Foundation. In addition, he has been invited to give workshops for public policy professionals on program evaluation topics in Luxembourg; and selections of his research have been employed in workshops sponsored by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

He holds a B.A. in economics from Monterrey Institute of Technology (ITESM) in Mexico, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from The Ohio State University.

"Genes, Education, Gene-Education Interactions in Obesity and Mental Health", Sponsored by National Institutes of Health (NIH)/DHHS.

"Partial and Point Identification of Causal Net and Mechanism Effects Under Different Treatment Assignments With Heterogeneous Effects: Theory and Applications", Sponsored by National Science Foundation.

"Government, Housing, and the Changing Income Distribution During the Great Depression: A Disaggregated and Microeconomic Approach", Sponsored by National Science Foundation.

• Journal Articles
  • Flores-Lagunes, A., Bia, M., Flores, C. A. and Mattei, A., "A Stata Package for the Application of Semiparametric Estimators of Dose-Response Functions." Stata Journal.
  • Flores-Lagunes, A., Cecchetti, S. G. and Krause, S., "Has Monetary Policy Become More Efficient in Mexico?." Central Bank of Mexico Research Document Series.
  • Flores-Lagunes, A., Jales, H., Liu, J. and Wilson, N., "Moving Policies toward Racial and Ethnic Inequality: An Illustration using the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program." American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 2023.
  • Flores-Lagunes, A., Baltagi, B. H. and Karatas, H. M., "The Effect of Higher Education on Women's Obesity and Smoking: Evidence from College Openings in Turkey." Economic Modelling, 2023.
  • Wang, X., Flores-Lagunes, A., "Conscription and Military Service Do They Result in Future Violent and Nonviolent Incarcerations and Recidivism." JOURNAL OF HUMAN RESOURCES, 2022.
  • Flores-Lagunes, A., Bia, M. and Mercantati, A., "Evaluation of Language Training Programs in Luxembourg using Principal Stratification." Observational Studies, 2022.
  • Flores-Lagunes, A., Amin, V., Behrman, J., Fletcher, J., Flores, C. A. and Kohler, H. P., "Genetic Risks, Adolescent Health and Schooling Attainment." Health Economics, 2021.
  • Flores-Lagunes, A., Blanco, G., Flores, C. A. and Chen, X., "Bounds on Average and Quantile Treatment Effects on Duration Outcomes under Censoring, Selection, and Noncompliance." Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, 2020.
  • Flores-Lagunes, A., Amin, V. and Flores, C. A., "The Impact of BMI on Mental Health: Further Evidence from Genetic Markers." Economics and Human Biology, 2020.
  • Flores-Lagunes, A., Baltagi, B. H. and Karastas, H. M., "The Effect of Education on Health: Evidence from the 1997 Compulsory Schooling Reform in Turkey." Regional Science and Urban Economics, 2019.
• Book Chapters
  • Flores-Lagunes, A., Gonzalez, A. and Neumann, T., "Does Job Corps Training Boost Labor Market Outcomes of Young Hispanics?." In Young Workers In The Global Economy: Job Challenges In North America, Europe And Japan. DeFreitas, G. (ed.) Edward Elgar, 2008.
  • Flores-Lagunes, A., Cecchetti, S. G. and Krause, S., "Assessing the Sources of Changes in the Volatility of Real Growth." In The Changing Nature of the Business Cycle. Kent, C., Norman, D. (eds.) Reserve Bank of Australia, 2005.
  • Flores-Lagunes, A., Gonzalez, A. and Neumann, T., "Out of the Barrio: Do Young Hispanics Benefit from Residential Job Training Programs?." In Proceedings of the 56th Annual Meeting of the Industrial Relations Research Association. IRRA, 2004.
  • Flores-Lagunes, A., Maddala, G. S., "Qualitative Response Models." In A Companion to Theoretical Econometrics. Baltagi, B. H. (ed.) Basil Blackwell, 2001.

Upjohn Institute for Employment Research (September, 2023 - September, 2023)

Duke in DC, "Beyond Talking Points: The Past, Present and Future of the Farm Bill: Nutrition Assistance Programs" (June, 2023)

AAEA Conference on Economics of Inequity in Agricultural, Food, and Environmental Systems, AAEA, "Opportunities and Best Practices for Research on Inequities in Agriculture, Food, and the Environment" (May, 2023)

University of California at Davis (2023 - 2023)

FGV-Sao Paulo School of Economics (2023 - 2023)

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore's Management Review Doctoral Conference (IMRDC) 2022 (January, 2022)

XV Encuentro Internacional de Capital Humano y Crecimiento (October, 2021)

Universidad Católica del Uruguay (UCU) Virtual Seminar series (May, 2021)

American Society of Hispanic Economists (ASHE) Virtual Seminar series (April, 2021)

Bank of Mexico—Guadalajara Region, "Microeconometric Methods" (December, 2020)

Southern Economic Association Meeting (November, 2020)

Center for Aging and Policy Studies Annual Conference (October, 2020)

Global Labor Organization (GLO) Virtual Seminar series (October, 2020)

XIV Encuentro Internacional de Capital Humano y Crecimiento (October, 2020)

Stony Brook University (Department of Economics) (November, 2019)

XIV Encuentro Internacional de Capital Humano y Crecimiento (November, 2019)

Midwest Econometrics Group Meeting (October, 2019)

University of Western Ontario (Department of Economics) (September, 2019)

Institute for Research in Poverty (University of Wisconsin) (June, 2019)

University at Buffalo (Department of Economics) (March, 2019)

Iowa State University (Department of Economics) (February, 2019)

Georgia State University (Department of Economics) (February, 2019)

Accredited Referee, National System of Scientific and Technological Evaluation (SINECYT), National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT) (2028)

Excellence in Graduate Education Faculty Recognition Award, Syracuse University (2021)

Doctoral Scholarship, National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT) (September, 1996 - June, 2001)

Departmental Citation for Excellence in Teaching AY2000, Department of Economics, The Ohio State University (August, 2000 - December, 2000)

Dice Fellowship Award, Department of Economics, The Ohio State University (2000)