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Leopoldo Fergusson

Professor

University of the Andes

Leopoldo Fergusson’s research focuses on political economy and development economics. Recent topics of his research include the effects of incentives on state-building and conflict, the political incentives for sustained violent conflict, the eruption of violence against minority political parties, and how civil conflict affects environmental degradation. Much of his research is focused in his home country of Colombia.

As Professor of Economics at the Universidad de los Andes, Fergusson is the Director of the Center of Studies on Economic Development (CEDE). A Santo Domingo Visiting Scholar in Harvard University’s David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies in 2015 and a Visiting Associate Professor in MIT's Economics Department in 2018 and 2021, Fergusson is currently a member of Evidence in Governance and Politics and associate editor of Economía, the journal of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA).

He received his BA and MA in economics from the Universidad de los Andes and his PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Baidoa, Somalia

Makeshift, temporary shelter made of plastic and clothing at a refugee center in Baidoa, Somalia.