Wednesday, September 26, 2018
4 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
McKinney Conference Room
Maria Micaela Sviatschi is an assistant professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University. Her research interests are labor and development economics, with a focus on human capital and crime. One strand of her research explores how children start a criminal career in drug trafficking and gangs as well as the consequences of organized crime on economic development and state capacity. In particular, she has work on the development of criminal skills in drug trafficking organizations in Peru and gangs in El Salvador. She studies how exposure to illegal industries during childhood leads to the development of criminal capital, increasing the probability of incarceration and reducing trust in state institutions later in life. In addition, she studies how criminal organizations such as gangs and drug trafficking groups affect household’s behavior and state presence in the areas they control. Another strand of her research studies the role of state capacity to deter and improve service-delivery to reduce gender-based violence. In particular, she is studying the effects of women police officers in Peru and India. In addition to this research, she has ongoing collaborative research projects in the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Colombia, Jordan and the US.