In 1998 she earned a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University with the completion of her thesis, titled Three essays in Banking, under the supervision of Andrei Shleifer and Jeremy Stein.
Her main research focuses on the impact of cultural norms on economic decisions and outcomes.
[13] In a series of papers with Paola Giuliano and various collaborators, she explores how vertical and horizontal cultural transmission of preferences shapes academic performance.
Their work with immigrant students in Florida public schools demonstrates how cultural attitudes (specifically long term orientation) transmitted from parents to children influences educational achievement, showing that students from cultures emphasizing delayed gratification perform better academically.
[15] These findings contribute to the broader understanding of how cultural values and beliefs transmitted through families and peer groups shape educational outcomes, challenging previous negative assumptions about immigrant effects on native students' performance.
[11][26][27] Her research has been quoted in the Financial Times,[28] Washington Post,[29] Quartz,[30] NPR,[31] Forbes,[32] The Economist,[33][34][35] Science magazine,[36] El País,[37] The Telegraph,[38] The New York Times,[39] Bloomberg,[40] The Wall Street Journal.