I am an assistant professor in Economics at the University of Arizona. My research fields include Industrial Organization, Health Economics, and Applied Econometrics. I teach Strategy at both undergraduate and graduate levels.

Currrent Research:

The Cost of Growth: Estimating Entry Costs During Rollouts. [pdf]

Compettive Effects of Multi-Market Contact, joint with G. Arie and S. Markovich [pdf]

Welfare Consequences of Mergers with Product Repositioning, joint with M. Mazzeo and K. Seim [pdf]

Published Papers:

L. Dafny, K. Ho, M. Varela. 2010. An Individual Healthplan Exchange: Which Employees Would Benefit and Why?. American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings. 100: 485-489. [pdf]

L. Dafny, K. Ho, M. Varela. 2012. Let Them Have Choice: Gains From Shifting Away from Employer-Sponsered Health Insurance and Toward an Individual Exchange. American Economic Journal Public Policy. 5(1): 32-58.[pdf]

Current Teaching:

ECON 407 : Economics of Strategy

This is an undergraduate course in which students learn to relate economic principals to the competitive advantage of firms. The course also helps students develop skills required to comunicate strategy. The course is geared towards seniors in Business or Economics with a strong understanding of Microeconomics and Industrial Organization. It is case-based and relies heavily on team work and group discussions.

ECON 551 : Business Strategy

This course is part of the core MBA program. The course focuses on developing the skills required for managers to identify, comunicate, and implement sound strategy. It is a fast-paced case-based course.

About Me

I live in Tucson, AZ, where I work at the University of Arizona. Before coming to Arizona I studied a PhD in Managerial Economics at Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. My undergraduate major is Engineering Physics, which I obtained from Monterrey Tec (ITESM), located in Mexico.

I was born and raised in Monterrey, Mexico, although I lived for a couple of years in Champaign-Urbana, IL. After finishing college I worked for the Boston Consulting Group, in their Monterrey and Mexico City offices. I had the opportunity to travel all over Mexico and to visit places as beautiful and as remote as Chiapas and La Paz, BCS.