SC Santiago Rodrigo Cesteros
Santiago Rodrigo Cesteros
Economist · Researcher · Consultant

Santiago Rodrigo Cesteros.

I am an economist working on public finance, development, crime, and social policy. My research uses quasi-experimental and experimental methods to study how public policy and institutions shape outcomes — often in settings where markets and formal institutions underserve large groups, with a primary focus on Latin America.

Currently — PhD Candidate at the University of Barcelona & Consultant at the World Bank’s Development Research Group (DECRG).

I am a consultant at the World Bank, specializing in public finance and development economics, and I am currently pursuing a PhD in Economics at the University of Barcelona. My academic background includes a Master’s degree in Economics from Universidad de San Andrés and a Bachelor’s degree from the Universidad de Buenos Aires, where I graduated magna cum laude.

Over the past several years, I have gained extensive experience conducting applied research at institutions such as the World Bank, the University of Zurich, and the Inter-American Development Bank. My work has spanned diverse areas including impact evaluation, behavioral economics, financial inclusion, and crime economics, and has contributed to publications in leading academic journals.

Driven by a deep interest in understanding how economic policies affect development and social welfare, I have led and collaborated on research projects across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, applying rigorous empirical methods. I am particularly focused on the intersections between organized crime, institutions, and public policy, as well as on how migration dynamics influence economic and social outcomes. I also have a growing interest in public finance with a focus on white-collar crime, and in how such offenses impact state capacity and tax enforcement.

  1. 01

    Public Finance & Taxation

    Tax enforcement, fiscal capacity, white-collar crime, corruption, and their implications for institutional trust and governance.

  2. 02

    Development Economics

    Applied empirical work with a regional focus on Latin America and Africa — impact evaluation of policy interventions.

  3. 03

    Crime Economics

    The economic impact of organized crime and criminal violence — how illicit markets shape state-building and growth.

  4. 04

    Migration

    Integration, labor-market dynamics, and the intersection between migration and crime.

Empirical economics is changing at a pace that is hard to predict, and the long-run shape of the field is genuinely uncertain. Tools like Claude Code, Codex, and the broader wave of AI assistants are reshaping how research gets done day to day. As researchers, I think it matters to engage with these tools deliberately — so that they amplify our work rather than substitute for our judgment.

The list below collects repositories, workflow guides, and presentations I have found genuinely useful in building my own Claude Code pipeline. Most are from economists who have shared, in concrete detail, how they actually use these tools — opinionated enough to learn from, and specific enough to adapt.

Happy to discuss research collaborations, policy work, or new ideas across public finance, development, crime, and migration — reach out by email or on LinkedIn.