Janina V. Leon

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Labor markets, labor and firm informality, microenterprises, microfinance and financial inclusion, migration, youth and vulnerable population, poverty, education, gender.

SHORT BIO

I am a Peruvian economist, with decades of academic and professional experience, in Peru and abroad. Ph.D. in Development, Agricultural and Environmental Economics by The Ohio State University. I was Chair (2021-2023) of the Economics Department at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru (PUCP), where currently I am Full Professor.

I am an applied researcher and international consultant, with research and publications about labor, informality, microenterprises, microfinance and financial inclusion, migration, youth and vulnerable population, poverty, with a gender glance. These studies are about Peru and LA.

I participate actively in various associations (e.g., American Economic Association, Urban Affairs Association, Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association, Latin American Studies Association, Peruvian Economic Association, Peruvian Consortium of Economic and Social Research). I have served in senior management positions at PUCP, and have assumed professional responsibilities in public & private sectors of Peru.

RESEARCH AS ACADEMIC VISITOR

My main research interests are on labor and development. More specifically, I am interested in explore hypotheses about the slow changes in poverty and in labor markets, despite the dynamism of the economic activity of recent decades in Latin America. Along decades, the self-employed and microenterprises have accounted for more than 50% of employed workers, mostly in urban areas in Latin America, with consequent labor inequalities (among workers and their families). Several arguments are at the basis of the discussion and policy inferences, from those stressing the legal framework causes, to those explaining the labor outcomes as part of the consequences of the actual development of the economic and political system in Latin America. Because my research topics and interests are interdisciplinary, I am affiliate to the Latin American Centre (LAC), enriching with diverse people views, experiences, publications and activities with LAC, and related disciplines at the University of Oxford.