about me

During the 2024-2025 academic year, I’ll be a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Princeton University, in the Research Program in Development Economics.

In the Fall of 2025, I’ll become an Assistant Professor at the Vancouver School of Economics at the University of British Columbia.

I have PhD from UC Berkeley and a BA in Economics from Universidad de los Andes (Colombia).

My research interests are in political economy, development economics and behavioral economics.

(Curriculum Vitae) • m.ortiz@berkeley.edu

job market paper

Hate, Fear and Intergroup Conflict: Experimental Evidence from Nigeria
• Winner of the Weiss Family Distinguished Paper at NEUDC 2023
• Covered in: VoxDev, Marginal Revolution

publications

Monopoly of Taxation Without a Monopoly of Violence: The Weak State’s Trade-Offs from Taxation
with Soeren Henn, Christian Mastaki, Raúl Sánchez de la Sierra and David Q. Wu
(Review of Economic Studies, forthcoming)

work in progress

Local Markets as Intergroup Contact Platforms: Evidence from an RCT in Nigeria
(funding secured)

Ethiopian Factory: The Effect of Managerial Practices of Chinese Firms on Ethiopian Workers
with David Q. Wu (funding secured)