The department is a lively community that is recognised internationally as one of the top centres for research and teaching in development studies.

Our courses offer excellent training for a career in international development or for advanced study, and attract students of the highest calibre from across the world.
“I had waited for 10 years before my dream to study in Oxford became a reality and the experience was truly beyond expectation”
Our students are taught to develop as critical and independent thinkers and when they leave us they are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to bring about real change.
“My time at Oxford strengthened my critical analysis and provided me with a unique interdisciplinary grounding in history, politics and economics that has equipped me well in dealing with public policy issues and program development strategy.”
Our courses offer excellent training for a career in international development or for advanced study, and attract students of the highest calibre from across the world.
“I had waited for 10 years before my dream to study in Oxford became a reality and the experience was truly beyond expectation”
Our courses offer excellent training for a career in international development or for advanced study, and attract students of the highest calibre from across the world.
“I had waited for 10 years before my dream to study in Oxford became a reality and the experience was truly beyond expectation”
Our students are taught to develop as critical and independent thinkers and when they leave us they are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to bring about real change.
“My time at Oxford strengthened my critical analysis and provided me with a unique interdisciplinary grounding in history, politics and economics that has equipped me well in dealing with public policy issues and program development strategy.”
Our students are taught to develop as critical and independent thinkers and when they leave us they are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to bring about real change.
“My time at Oxford strengthened my critical analysis and provided me with a unique interdisciplinary grounding in history, politics and economics that has equipped me well in dealing with public policy issues and program development strategy.”
Gabriela primary research fields include development economics, economics of education and public service delivery in low-middle income countries. She is currently working on three main research projects. First, she studies the barriers to human capital formation, particularly those imposed by exposure to school violence and social norms. Related to this, she investigates the impacts of a Peruvian large-scale intervention aimed at improving school heads’ skills to manage school violence. Second, she studies the extent to which cognitive and non-cognitive (socio-emotional) skills accumulated during early adolescence shape the life trajectories of young people in four low-middle income countries (Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam). Third, she analyses the role of non-pecuniary sources of motivation on bureaucrats’ performance. Related to this, she is developing a theoretical framework and using empirical evidence to study whether the adoption of top-down interventions is explained by alignment in mission preferences and the quality of delivery. Her doctoral work is funded by the ESRC-Grand Union Doctoral Training Partnership and the Oxford Wolfson Marriott Graduate Scholarship.
Before joining the Department of International Development, she worked at the Institute for Fiscal Studies in the Centre for the Evaluation of Development Policies (EDePo). At the IFS she was part of a research project focused on exploring the effects of two interventions designed to reduce the grip of highly restrictive gender norms on adolescent girls’ education, marriage and well-being in rural Rajasthan, India. She also worked at Oxford Policy Management on early childhood education programs and worked for four years on the design and evaluation of policy reforms and social programs at Apoyo Consultoria, a leading economic consultancy in Peru.
Gabriela holds a Master on Public Administration from the London School of Economics, and a B.A. in Economics from Universidad del Pacifico in Peru.
Quantitative Methods - MPhil Development Studies (2019/20-2020/21). University of Oxford. Teaching Assistant for Pramila Krishnan and Christopher Woodruff.
Design and Evaluation of Social Programs – B.A. Economics (2012-2014). Universidad del Pacifico (Lima, Peru). Teaching Assistant for Joanna Kamiche.
Development economics, economics of education, public administration, and public service delivery