Carlos Villalobos

Ideas

Essays where research meets policymaking

12 Jun 2026 · Epistemology · Featured essay

Economics is not causal. It is epistemic.

We keep asking what causes what. The more consequential question is what our models allow us — and the institutions we advise — to think.

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28 May 2026 · Energy PovertyThe invisible face of energy povertyChile measures income poverty every two years, and does it well. What households burn to cook dinner remains largely unseen — and what is unseen is unbudgeted.Read →15 Aug 2021 · Trade & Food SecurityA complex worldIn the nineties, open trade looked irreversible. Three shocks later — nationalism, a trade war, a pandemic — food security is back on the rich world’s agenda, and Chile’s export model needs to think, not just grow.Read →

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