Research interests
Income inequality; social policy; industrial policy; state-society relations; political economy.
Diego Sánchez-Ancochea
Diego Sánchez-Ancochea specialises in the political economy of Latin America with a particular focus on Central America. His research interests centre on the determinants of income inequality and the role of social policy in reducing it.
His most recent book, The Costs of Inequality: Lessons and Warnings for the Rest of the World (Bloomsbury, 2020), was selected as one of the best books in Economics in 2020 by the Financial Times. Together with Juliana Martínez Franzoni, he is the author of Good Jobs and Social Services: How Costa Rica Achieved the Elusive Double Incorporation (Palgrave McMillan, 2013) and The Quest for Universal Social Policy in the South. Actors, Ideas and Architectures (CUP, 2016). This latter book (which was also published in Spanish in 2019) explores the determinants of universal social policy in the South - the topic he continues to work on at the moment. His joint and single-authored research has also been published in international journals such as World Development, the Journal of Latin American Studies, Economy and Society, Latin American Politics and Society and Latin American Research Review.
He studied for his PhD in Economics at the New School for Social Research (New York) and previously taught at the Institute for the Study of the Americas (University of London) between 2003 and 2008. Professor Sanchez-Ancochea has been a visiting fellow at the University of Costa Rica, at FLACSO-Dominican Republic and the program Desigualdades (Berlin) and most recently at the Kellogg Institute (University of Notre Dame). He was co-editor of the Journal of Latin American Studies (2015-19), Treasurer of the Latin American Studies Association (2018-20) and director of the Latin American Centre at Oxford (2015-18).
Professor Sánchez-Ancochea collaborates frequently with the ILO, UNDP, ECLAC, Oxford Analytica and other organisations. He is currently member of the editorial boards of Oxford Development Studies (associate editor) and Journal of Development Studies as well as member of the University of Oxford’s Council.
Teaching
Diego Sanchez-Ancochea teaches on the Economics, History and Politics and Development Studies courses for the MPhil in Development Studies. He also teaches an elective external module on the Ecomomics of Latin America at the Latin American Centre.
Doctoral supervision
Professor Sanchez-Ancochea's priority areas for supervision are the political economy of income inequality, including elite power, state policy and historical trajectories, and social policy and redistribution. Additionally, he is also happy to consider projects on political economy, economic transformation and public policy, with particular (but not exclusive) attention to Latin America.
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Books and monographs( ) The Political Economy of Segmented Expansion Latin American Social Policy in the 2000s . , Cambridge University Press( ) The Quest for Universal Social Policy in the South. Actors, Ideas and Architectures . , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press( ) Handbook of Central American Governance . , London: Routledge( ) Good Jobs and Social Services: How Costa Rica Achieved the Elusive Double Incorporation . , Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan( ) The Political Economy of the Budget in the Americas . , Institute for the Study of the Americas( ) Transnational Corporations and Development Policy: Critical Perspectives . , Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan( ) The Political Economy of Hemispheric Integration in the Americas: Responding to Globalization . , Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
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Journal articles and special issues( ) The Role of Digital Credit in Building Trust: A Case Study of Zhima Credit's Inclusive Housing Initiative in China . Asian Economic Papers 24(1) 67–92( ) The COVID-19 pandemic and social policy narratives in Costa Rica: the story of a (fleeting) opportunity . CEPAL Review 139 97-116( ) Southern Discomfort: Interrogating the Category of the Global South . Development and Change 53 (6) 1123-50( ) Why Is the Accumulation of Knowledge so Hard? Exploring Econometric Research on the Determinants of Public Social Spending in Latin America . Latin American Research Review 57 (2) 258–77( ) Institutional Change and Political Conflict in a Structuralist Model . Cambridge Journal of Economics 45 (6) 1269–96( ) The Surprising Reduction of Inequality during a Commodity Boom: What do we Learn from Latin America? . Journal of Economic Policy Reform( ) Scientific Capacity and Industrial Development as Locomotors of International Competitiveness in Latin America . Technological and Economic Development of Economy 25 (1) 300-21( ) Overcoming Segmentation in Social Policy? Comparing New Early Education and Child Care Efforts in Costa Rica and Uruguay . Bulletin of Latin American Research( ) Undoing Segmentation? Latin American Health Care Policy During the Economic Boom . Social Policy & Administration 52 (6) 1181-200( ) Inequality in Latin America: an Introduction . Revista de Economía Mundial 43 15-20( ) The Double Challenge of Market and Social Incorporation: Progress and Bottlenecks in Latin America . Development Policy Review 32 (3) 275-98( ) Filling in the missing link between universalism and democracy: The case of Costa Rica . Latin American Politics and Society 56 (4) 98-118( ) Can Latin American production regimes complement universalistic welfare regimes? Implications from the Costa Rican case . Latin American Research Review 48 (2) 148-73( ) A Fast Herd and a Slow Tortoise? Low Capabilities Accumulation and the Middle Income Trap in the Dominican Republic . Studies in Comparative International Development 47(2) 208-30( ) Bolsa Familia, Poverty and Inequality: Political and Economic Effects in the Short and Long Run . Global Social Policy 11 299-318( ) State, Firms and the Process of Industrial Upgrading: Latin America's Variety of Capitalism and the Costa Rican Experience . Economy and Society 38(1) 62-86
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Chapters( ) Promoting universal social policy in MIC . In J.A. Ocampo, J.A. Alonso Trapped in the Middle? Developmental Challenges for Middle-Income Countries , Oxford University Press( ) “¿Hacia una América Latina menos desigual? Reflexiones después de una década de éxito" . In Puchet, M. and A. Puyana América Latina en la larga historia de la desigualdad , Mexico City, FLASCO( ) Why and How to Build Universal Social Policy in the South . Confronting Dystopia: The New Technological Revolution and the Future of Work , Cornell University Press( ) The Political Economy of Inequality at the Top in contemporary Chile . In L Bertola, J Williamson Has Latin American Inequality Changed Direction?: Looking Over the Long Run , Springer for IDB and the World Bank( ) Regímenes del bienestar en América Latina: tensiones entre universalización y segmentación . In E Del Pino, MJ Rubio Lara Los Estados del Bienestar en la encrucijada: Polítias sociales en perspectiva comparada , Tecnos( ) Public Social Services and Income Inequality . In J Berg Labour Markets, Institutions and Inequality: Building Just Societies in the 21st Century , Edward Elgar and International Labour Organisation( ) Incorporation and Regionalism in Latin America . In E Vivares Exploring the New South American Regionalism , London: Ashgate( ) Costa Rica . In D Sanchez-Ancochea, S Marti i Puig Handbook of Central American Governance , London: Routledge( ) Does Globalization Help to Overcome the 'Challenge of Development?' Political Actors and Economic Rents in Central America and the Dominican Republic . In E Paus Getting Development Right. Structural Transformation, Inclusion and Sustainability in the Post-Crisis Era , Palgrave McMillan( ) Explaining a Contradictory Record: The Case of Guatemala . In A Langer, F Stewart, R Venugopal Horizontal Inequalities and Post-conflict Development , Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan( ) Introduction: The Political Economy of the Budgets in Comparative Perspective . In D Sanchez-Ancochea, I Morgan The Political Economy of the Budget in the Americas , Institute for the Study of the Americas( ) How Have TNCs Changed in the Last Fifty Years? . In E Rugraff, D Sanchez-Ancochea and A Sumner Transnational Corporations and Development Policy: Critical Perspectives , Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan( ) Are North-South Trade Agreements Good for FDI-led Development? The Case of DR-CAFTA . In E Rugraff, D Sanchez-Ancochea and A Sumner Transnational Corporations and Development Policy: Critical Perspectives , Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan( ) What Do We Know About Development Impacts? . In E Rugraff, D Sanchez-Ancochea and A Sumner Critical Perspectives on Transnational Corporations and Development Policy , Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan( ) Public Budgets and Income Inequality in Latin America: A Comparative Perspective . In D Sanchez-Ancochea, I Morgan The Political Economy of the Budget in the Americas , Institute for the Study of the Americas( ) State and Society: The Political Economy of DR-CAFTA in Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and El Salvador . In D Sanchez Ancochea, K Shalden The Political Economy of Hemispheric Integration in the Americas: Responding to Globalization , Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan( ) Globalization, Integration and Economic Development in the Americas . In D Sanchez Ancochea, K Shalden The Political Economy of Hemispheric Integration in the Americas: Responding to Globalization , Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
