I am a comparativist studying Political Science in the Department of Government at Harvard. My substantive interests lie in institutions, constitutional-legal design, and judicial politics, with a regional focus on Latin America. Broadly, I investigate whether and how legal institutions and judicial activity impact socioeconomic well-being. Methodologically, I blend deep case knowledge with techniques of causal inference and machine learning to address the intersection between Politics, Law, and Economics.

Before joining Harvard, I completed a dual MA in International Public Affairs and Latin American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I also worked as a lecturer in the Department of Political Science. Outside academia, I served as a judge for five years in São Paulo, Brazil.

Ongoing Projects…

I am currently working on two projects.

The first intends to measure the distributional effects of the judicialization of social policies in Brazil. In countries where millions lack basic conditions for a dignified life, common wisdom suggests that legal institutions can produce social progress via judicial proactivity. However, given that multiple barriers still prevent the poorest citizens from litigating, uneven access to justice might accrue benefits to upper classes, more endowed with resources to litigate. It is likewise unclear whether judicialization diverts blame attribution to the atomized enforcement of rights, alleviating political pressure, or if activist courts alienate structural changes that demand political capital and grassroots support.

The second project assesses the aspirational content of South American constitutions via text mining. Preliminary evidence, drawn from latent growth modeling, suggests that the ontological gap between formal rights and socioeconomic reality has enlarged over time. This finding stresses that “good” laws have limited effect if the sociopolitical context is discounted.