Damián Vergara, Assistant Professor
Department of Economics, University of Michigan
Education:
Ph.D. in Economics, UC Berkeley
B.A. and M.A. in Economics, Universidad de Chile
Affiliations and Previous Appointments:
Faculty Research Fellow, NBER (Public Economics) (2025-)
Research Affiliate, IZA Institute of Labor Economics (2023-)
Postdoctoral Research Associate, IR Section, Princeton University (2023-2024)
Working Papers
Minimum Wages and Optimal Redistribution: The Role of Firm Profits.
This version: February 2025.
Minimum Wages and the Distribution of Firm Wage Premia (with M. Bergolo, R. Ceni, and M. Fondo).
This version: February 2025.
Directed Search, Pay, and Non-Wage Amenities: Evidence from an Online Job Board (with V. Escudero and H. Liepmann).
This version: February 2025.
Optimal Tax Information with Privacy Concerns (with J. Slemrod).
This version: June 2025.
An Observational Implementation of the Outcome Test with an Application to Ethnic Prejudice in Pretrial Detentions (with N. Grau).
This version: August 2024. R&R, Journal of the European Economic Association.
Discrimination Against Immigrants in the Criminal Justice System: Evidence from Pretrial Detentions (with P. Domínguez and N. Grau).
This version: August 2023.
Refereed Publications
Place-Based Redistribution (with C. Gaubert, P. Kline, and D. Yagan). February 2025.
Accepted, American Economic Review.
Workplace Litigiousness and Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from a Workers' Compensation Reform (with M. Lauletta). November 2024.
Accepted, Journal of Law and Economics.
Do Policies and Institutions Matter for Pre-Tax Income Inequality? Cross-Country Evidence (appendix) (replication package).
2022. International Tax and Public Finance 29 (1): pp. 20-52.
Combining Discrimination Diagnostics to Identify Sources of Statistical Discrimination (appendix) (with P. Domínguez and N. Grau).
2022. Economics Letters 212, 110294.
Ambiguity and Long-Run Cooperation in Strategic Games (appendix) (code) (with M. Rojas).
2021. Oxford Economic Papers 73 (3): pp 1077-1098.
Using Small Businesses for Individual Tax Planning: Evidence from Special Tax Regimes in Chile (with C. Agostini, E. Engel, and A. Repetto).
2018. International Tax and Public Finance 25 (6): pp 1449-1489.
Non-Refereed Publications
A Simple Model of Corporate Tax Incidence (appendix) (replication package) (with D. Swonder).
2024. AEA Papers and Proceedings 114: 352-357.
Trends in US Spatial Inequality: Concentrating Affluence and a Democratization of Poverty (appendix) (replication package) (with C. Gaubert, P. Kline, and D. Yagan).
2021. AEA Papers and Proceedings 111: pp 520-525.
Policy Papers, Book Chapters, and Pre-Doctoral Research
Diagnóstico Distributivo de Ingreso y Patrimonio, y Análisis de la Propuesta de Reforma Tributaria en Materia de Renta y Riqueza (with N. Bohme, I. Flores, P. Gutiérrez, R. Smith, and P. Valenzuela).
2022. Documento de Trabajo Ministerio de Hacienda de Chile (in Spanish).
Natural Resources and Educational Attainment: Evidence from Chile (with R. Álvarez).
2022. Resources Policy 76, 102573.
Cómo diseñar impuestos: Teoría económica y evidencia empírica.
2021. In Impuestos justos para el Chile que viene: Diagnóstico y desafíos tributarios para un nuevo pacto fiscal, edited by J. Atria and C. Otero (book website), Fondo de Cultura Económica (in Spanish).
Análisis de Implementación de las Nuevas Reglas de Financiamiento a la Política y Campañas Electorales (with E. Engel, M. Jaraquemada, and N. Campos).
2018. Informe de Políticas Públicas, Espacio Público (in Spanish).
Principios para una Reforma al Sistema de Pensiones (with E. Engel, E. Fajnzylber, P. Fernández, S. Gray, and A. Repetto).
2017. Informe de Políticas Públicas, Espacio Público (in Spanish).
Sistema de Pensiones: Opiniones y Demandas Ciudadanas.
2017. Documento de Referencia, Espacio Público (in Spanish).