Costas is a Research Fellow of the Institute. He is also Professor of Economics at Yale University and Visiting Professor at University College London. His research interests are Econometrics, Public policy, Labor economics, Economics of education, Microeconometrics, Evaluation of public policy, Household behavior, Retirement and pensions, Income distribution, Consumption, Demand analysis, Investment and Development economics.
Education
PhD Economics, University of Manchester, 1985
MA (with Distinction) Economics, University of Manchester, 1980
BA (1st Class Honours) Economics and Econometrics, University of Manchester, 1979
In this paper the authors use a randomised experiment to analyse the impact of a school grants program in Senegal, which decentralised a portion of the country's education budget.
The authors develop an equilibrium lifecycle model of education, marriage and labor supply and consumption in a transferable utility context. The model is estimated using the British HPS.
The authors examine the channels through which a randomized early childhood intervention in Colombia led to significant gains in cognitive and socio-emotional skills among a sample of disadvantaged children.
The authors use an RCT to analyze the impacts of microcredit, with a study population consisting of loan applicants who were marginally rejected by an MFI in Bosnia.
Chapter 10 in 'Social insurance, informality, and labor markets: how to protect workers while creating good jobs', edited by Markus Frölich, David Kaplan, Carmen Pagés, Jamele Rigolini and David Robalino.
The objective of this paper is to assess the effectiveness of an integrated early child development intervention, combining stimulation and micronutrient supplementation and delivered on a large scale in Colombia, for children’s development, growth, and hemoglobin levels.
We study the socio-economic gradient of child development on a representative sample of low- and middle-income children aged 6-42 months in Bogota, using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, a high quality test based on direct observation of the child’s abilities.
This paper analyses the career progression of skilled and unskilled workers with a focus on how careers are affected by economic downturns and whether formal skills, acquired early on, can shield workers from the effect of recessions.
We develop an empirical search-matching model which is suitable for analysing the wage, employment and welfare impact of regulation in a labour market with heterogeneous workers and jobs.
This article outlines how a home visiting intervention in Colombia, delivered at scale through partnering with existing social welfare systems, successfully increased the variety of play materials and play activities in poor households with children aged between 1 and 2 years at the start of the intervention.
This paper considers the impact of Tax credits and income support programs on female education choice, employment, hours and human capital accumulation over the life-cycle.
We consider the impact of tax credits and income support programs on female education choice, employment, hours and human capital accumulation over the life-cycle.
This paper analyses the career progression of skilled and unskilled workers, with a focus on how careers are affected by economic downturns and whether formal skills, acquired early on, can shield workers from the effect of recessions.
