ROCIO MADERA
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I am an Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics at Southern Methodist University. I am also a CESifo Research Network Affiliate. I received my Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Minnesota. Prior to that, I studied at CEMFI and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.

My research combines income and spending micro-data with quantitative life-cycle and spatial models to answer questions on macroeconomic policy and labor economics; with a particular focus on measuring the propagation and pass-through of income and price changes to individuals' welfare.

Contact: romadera@smu.edu
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PUBLICATIONS

Self-Employment Promotion as Active Labor Market Policy: Design and Trade-offs in Rigid Labor Markets (with Joaquin Garcia-Cabo and Zoe Xie) - Economics Letters, accepted
SSRN
Consumption Dynamics and Welfare Under Non-Gaussian Earnings Risk (with Fatih Guvenen and Serdar Ozkan) - Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, December 2024
DOI NBER WP
Does Self-Employment Pay? The Role of Unemployment and Earnings Risk (with Joaquin Garcia-Cabo) - Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, April 2024
DOI Fed IF Discussion Papers
Skewed Idiosyncratic Income Risk over the Business Cycle: Sources and Insurance (with Chris Busch, David Domeij, and Fatih Guvenen) - AEJ: Macroeconomics, April 2022
DOI NBER WP Code VoxEU Column
Income Contingent University Loans: Policy Design and an Application to Spain (with Antonio Cabrales, Maia Güell, and Analia Viola) - Economic Policy, July 2019
DOI Code VoxEU Column NeG Blog Post

BOOK CHAPTERS

University financing: sustainability, efficiency and redistribution (with Antonio Cabrales, Maia Güell, and Analia Viola) - prepared for Beyond Ivory Tower. Navigating Higher Education in the Future, Funcas Social and Economic Studies, November 2024
La financiación de las universidades: sostenibilidad, eficiencia y redistribución (with Antonio Cabrales, Maia Güell, and Analia Viola) - prepared for Desafíos y oportunidades para el futuro de la educación superior, Papeles de Economía Española, June 2024

WORKING PAPERS

The Insurance Value of Public Insurance Against Idiosyncratic Income Risks (with Chris Busch)
The Nonlinear Consumption Response to Income Risk: The Role of Tail Changes and Durables
Urban Welfare: Tourism in Barcelona (with Treb Allen, Simon Fuchs, Sharat Ganapati, Alberto Graziano, and Judit Montoriol-Garriga)
Updated Slides, September 2023

WORK IN PROGRESS

Income Dynamics of Couples: Correlated Risks and Heterogeneous Within-Household Insurance (with Chris Busch and Fane Groes)
Updated Slides, December 2024
Early-Career Job Instability and Life-Cycle Income Dynamics (with Antonio Cabrales and Maia Güell)
Slides
Spatial Fiscal Policy: Stimulus Payments in a Consumption Network (with Simon Fuchs, Wookun Kim, and Hoyoung Yoo)
Last update: September 2025.