Álvaro Espinoza Benza
Adjunct Researcher
Master in Political Science - New School of Social Research
aespinoza@grade.org.pe
Álvaro graduated in Economics from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru and holds a Master’s degree in Political Science from the New School of Social Research in New York. He is an Adjunct Researcher at GRADE. His work has focused on public management, institutional economics and urban development.
Álvaro has a broad experience as a consultant and researcher on institutional and agricultural issues undertook for various national and international bodies. He has held several senior management positions in public institutions linked to rural development and urban policies. Currently, he conducts projects linked to this last issue, with a particular stress in the development of urban peripheries.
Publications
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El impacto de la pandemia en el sistema de distribución de alimentos del Perú: los mercados de abastos minoristas
2022 Álvaro Espinoza, Ricardo Fort, Mauricio Espinoza
During 2020, the COVID-19 health emergency tested the effectiveness and resilience of Peru’s food distribution system, particularly in its most important part: traditional food markets, where more than half of household food expenditure is concentrated. The shock manifested itself in two dimensions: the reduction in demand for food from a suddenly impoverished population, and the […]
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Chapter in BookEl Perú pendiente: ensayos para un desarrollo con bienestar
Reorganizar el Perú: ciudades intermedias y desarrollo
2022 Álvaro Espinoza, Ricardo Fort, Mauricio Espinoza
This essay addresses the discussion of “Lima centralism” and the enormous imbalance of resources and opportunities between the capital and the rest of the country’s cities. The lack of territorial planning and specific policies that promote the potential of each region generates inequalities and inefficiencies in the current growth model and, therefore, it is essential […]
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COVID-19 y las migraciones de la ciudad al campo en el Perú: identificación de amenazas y oportunidades para el uso sostenible del capital natural
2022 Ricardo Fort, Mauricio Espinoza, Álvaro Espinoza
This study analyses the dynamics of this return migration to rural areas during 2020 using census data and records of returnee arrivals, and then interviews more than 3,000 households in 19 provinces and 77 districts with the largest flows. Based on this information, we estimate that around a quarter of a million people, mostly young […]
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Embedding community voice into smart city spatial planning
2022 Jaideep Gupte, Louise Clark, Debjani Ghosh, Sarath Babu, Priyanka Mehra, Asif Raza, Vaibhav Sharma, Yogesh Kumar, Alpana Mishra, Kabir Shrivastava, Pranjal Kulkarni, Ricardo Fort, Álvaro Espinoza, Adrián Chuquipiondo, Jeetendra Rathore, Divya Pillai
Public participation in spatial planning is a vital means to successful policymaking and can be enhanced by combining geospatial methods with participatory learning and action. Based on a pilot study in Bhopal, India involving urban authorities, civil society organisations and experts in an informal settlement during Covid-19 lockdowns, the authors find that the obstacles to […]
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Hacia una nueva política de vivienda en el Perú: problemas y posibilidades
2020 Ricardo Fort, Álvaro Espinoza
The following pages describe the general problem of housing production in Peru, and outline, in a very concrete and succinct manner, several possible policy measures that can help to substantially increase housing production —especially social housing (VIS for its acronyms in Spanish)— in the short and medium term.
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COVID-19 y las migraciones de la ciudad al campo en el Perú: identificación de amenazas y oportunidades para el uso sostenible del capital natural
2022 Ricardo Fort, Mauricio Espinoza, Álvaro Espinoza
This study analyses the dynamics of this return migration to rural areas during 2020 using census data and records of returnee arrivals, and then interviews more than 3,000 households in 19 provinces and 77 districts with the largest flows. Based on this information, we estimate that around a quarter of a million people, mostly young […]
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Mapeo y tipología de la expansión urbana en el Perú
2020 Álvaro Espinoza, Ricardo Fort
This document summarises the main findings of a study commissioned by the Asociación de Desarrolladores Inmobiliarios (ADI) and executed by the Grupo de Análisis para el Desarrollo (GRADE) during 2019, which aims to quantify and understand the internal dynamics of urban growth in Peru over the last two decades.
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The impact of social ties and third-party enforcement on collective action and growth: micro evidence from Peru
2019 Keefer Philip, Mauricio Espinoza, Álvaro Espinoza, Ricardo Fort
Exploiting a unique empirical setting, 1,000 vendors in 90 traditional food markets in Lima, researchers document that historic social ties among market founders are associated, decades later, with stricter formal (third party) enforcement of market rules, more collective action, and the greater resilience of market sales to the entry of modern supermarkets. Markets with stronger […]
No se han encontrado publicaciones de Álvaro Espinoza en la categoría Journal
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Reorganizar el Perú: ciudades intermedias y desarrollo
El Perú pendiente: ensayos para un desarrollo con bienestar2022 Álvaro Espinoza, Ricardo Fort, Mauricio Espinoza
This essay addresses the discussion of “Lima centralism” and the enormous imbalance of resources and opportunities between the capital and the rest of the country’s cities. The lack of territorial planning and specific policies that promote the potential of each region generates inequalities and inefficiencies in the current growth model and, therefore, it is essential […]
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Del plan al proyecto urbano. Reestructurar la ciudad o las políticas públicas
Otro urbanismo para Lima: más allá del mejoramiento de barrios2017 Luis Rodríguez, Álvaro Espinoza
Reflexión sobre la relación entre el contexto histórico, socio económico y político de la ciudad y las herramientas de planificación con que se opera. El capítulo busca advertir las especificidades del contexto peruano y, sobre la base de la experiencia de los proyectos urbanos integral (PUI), pensar el qué y el cómo de las herramientas […]
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Determinantes de la fragmentación de la inversión pública urbana: evidencia empírica en los barrios populares de Lima
Otro urbanismo para Lima: más allá del mejoramiento de barrios2017 Álvaro Espinoza, Ricardo Fort
The article presents empirical research that analyses the social, political and administrative factors that diminish the efficiency and effectiveness of the National Public Investment System (SNIP), resulting in the limited scope and inadequate prioritisation of public works in human settlements.
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Embedding community voice into smart city spatial planning
2022 Jaideep Gupte, Louise Clark, Debjani Ghosh, Sarath Babu, Priyanka Mehra, Asif Raza, Vaibhav Sharma, Yogesh Kumar, Alpana Mishra, Kabir Shrivastava, Pranjal Kulkarni, Ricardo Fort, Álvaro Espinoza, Adrián Chuquipiondo, Jeetendra Rathore, Divya Pillai
Public participation in spatial planning is a vital means to successful policymaking and can be enhanced by combining geospatial methods with participatory learning and action. Based on a pilot study in Bhopal, India involving urban authorities, civil society organisations and experts in an informal settlement during Covid-19 lockdowns, the authors find that the obstacles to […]
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Planning informality: promoting a market of planned informal settlements
2018 Álvaro Espinoza, Ricardo Fort
About 30% of the population in developing countries live in informal urban settlements lacking adequate basic services, public spaces and urban equipment. The origin to most of these shortcomings can be traced to a single feature: the urban layout design.
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Planificar la informalidad: herramientas para el desarrollo de mercados de “urbanizaciones informales planificadas”
2018 Álvaro Espinoza, Ricardo Fort
About 30% of the population in developing countries live in informal urban settlements lacking adequate basic services, public spaces and urban equipment. The origin to most of these shortcomings can be traced to a single feature: the urban layout design.
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Mejor inversión pública para evitar más desastres: brechas y prioridades de infraestructura en los barrios vulnerables de Lima
2017 Álvaro Espinoza, Ricardo Fort
Policy document that provides inputs for the design and implementation of infrastructure plans with a territorial approach through the analysis of infrastructure gaps and priorities and the quality of public investment in three vulnerable urban neighbourhoods in Lima.
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Inversión sin planificación. La calidad de la inversión pública en los barrios vulnerables de Lima
2017 Álvaro Espinoza, Ricardo Fort
This book seeks to measure the quality of public investment in vulnerable urban neighbourhoods (BUVs) through three analytical exercises. First, it characterises the types of urban spaces in the country and analyses public investment in them. Then, it proposes and applies a methodology to measure the quality of such investment on the basis of case studies […]
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Otro urbanismo para Lima: más allá del mejoramiento de barrios
2017 Jitka Molnárová, Luis Rodríguez Rivero, Álvaro Espinoza, Ricardo Fort
A set of articles that analyse, from various points of view and disciplines, the different aspects involved in the development of the integral urban project area of the metropolitan programme Barrio Mío. Its main contribution is to show and analyse the approach and the concrete and complete methodology with which urban planning in the working-class […]
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Hacia una nueva política de vivienda en el Perú: problemas y posibilidades
2020 Ricardo Fort, Álvaro Espinoza
The following pages describe the general problem of housing production in Peru, and outline, in a very concrete and succinct manner, several possible policy measures that can help to substantially increase housing production —especially social housing (VIS for its acronyms in Spanish)— in the short and medium term.
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Communities and spontaneous urban planning: a toolkit for urban expansion. Project summary
2018 Álvaro Espinoza, Ricardo Fort
Most urbanization processes around developing countries are happening either by rural-urban migration, as it happened in Lima 25 years ago, or by high paced vegetative population growth among second and third-generation migrants, as it is happening now in Lima—and either form exerts pressure on relatively weak public institutions. State-sponsored urban planning is often absent, so […]
Projects
- Evaluation: Impact of DEG/OeEB investments on its clients, their employees and local communitiesOctober 2024
- Diagnosis and roadmap for strengthening research capabilities and contribution to the productive sector of the Universidad Nacional Santiago Antúnez de MayoloOctober 2024
- Study of the economic, social and environmental impact on the segment that progressively builds in urban PeruMarch 2024
- Sub-Award Agreement for the Andes-Amazon Biodiverse LandscapeFebruary 2024
- Consulting services for the execution of components 2 and 3 of the project “Evidence based foundations to accelerate the allocation of capital towards public good in Peru and catalyze an impact-focused economy”January 2024
- Formulation of the Regional Research AgendaNovember 2022
- Characterization and quantification of the process of self-construction of housing in Peru.October 2022
- Infrastructure for rural developmentApril 2022
- Vertical structure of local tax administration in Latin America – A case study of PeruJuly 2021
- Capacity Building for Smart Data and Inclusive Cities in IndiaApril 2021
Media
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Álvaro Espinoza’s opinion on the housing shortage and challenges for access to formal housing in Peru
January 2, 2025 Urbanization and sustainable cities
“Although the Techo Propio programme offers bonds to help families acquire housing, these bonds are conditioned to obtaining a mortgage loan, which is difficult in a country where more than 70% of the population works in the informal sector and is not considered creditworthy by banks”. Our Adjunct Researcher Álvaro Espinoza shares his thoughts on the challenges […]
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Alvaro Espinoza’s opinion: Seven out of every 10 homes in the national urban area are self-built
May 29, 2024 Urbanization and sustainable cities
“It is construction without plans, on the fly, without respecting standards and structural safety. The people who build just repeat what was done in a previous work. There are houses that use even more material than they need because there are no correct calculations either.” Our Adjunct Researcher Alvaro Espinoza shared his opinion in a […]
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“Urban expansion should have been planned since the project began to be considered”. Alvaro Espinoza’s opinion on Chancay’s mega-port
April 9, 2024 Urbanization and sustainable cities
“For them to start worrying about how the city is going to expand at this point is untimely. Urban expansion should have been planned since the project began to be considered”. Alvaro Espinoza, adjunct researcher at GRADE, writes in El Comercio about the housing demands due to the construction of the Chancay mega-port.
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Espinoza and Fort’s study on urban expansion of the last 20 years in Peru is quoted in Somos Periodismo PUCP
August 24, 2023 Urbanization and sustainable cities
“For those with scarce resources, the option is to invade a plot of land or buy it in the illegal market. According to a study conducted by GRADE, 93% of the country’s urban expansion is developed informally”. Somos Periodismo PUCP quoted the study by our researchers Alvaro Espinoza and Ricardo Fort on the internal dynamics […]
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The right to a decent housing. An Infobae article cited study by Alvaro Espinoza and Ricardo Fort
August 22, 2023
“Annually, 127 thousand new homes are built, 84 thousand of which are built informally; therefore, there is still a housing deficit that is growing every year”. Lawyer Giancarlo Vega highlights the findings of the study by our researchers Alvaro Espinoza and Ricardo Fort, “Towards a new housing policy in Peru: problems and possibilities (“Hacia una […]
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Promoting informality, by Alvaro Espinoza
July 30, 2020 Urbanization and sustainable cities
“A really sensible housing policy without consistency in the title of the precarious land, but rather generates alternatives of access to decent housing, or at least to the authorized lots, for the families who have to have in the land traffickers their only option viable”. Our adjunct researcher, Álvaro Espinoza, writes in El Comercio about the […]
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Opinion Article, Media GRADE, GRADE frente al COVID-19
Propuesta de medidas para reducir aglomeraciones y contagios en los mercados de abastos
April 29, 2020
Por: Ricardo Fort y Alvaro Espinoza. Hace casi un mes, nuestro artículo sobre focos de contagio en Lima advirtió e identificó los principales mercados que podían convertirse en focos de contagio del COVID-19. Hoy sabemos que más del 20% de los comerciantes en el Mercado Caqueta están infectados con el virus. Aquí presentamos una lista de […]
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Opinion Article, Media GRADE, GRADE frente al COVID-19
Por un Modelo Peruano: capital social para enfrentar la crisis
April 28, 2020 Urbanization and sustainable cities
El esfuerzo inicial del gobierno para enfrentar la crisis por la pandemia —cuarentena y asistencia social— va llegando inevitablemente a su fin. Sin embargo, el Perú no es ajeno a experiencias que han combinado muerte y recesión económica a gran escala. Nuestras respuestas ante estas crisis han construido un “Modelo Peruano” caracterizado por la organización […]
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Opinion Article, Media GRADE, GRADE frente al COVID-19
COVID-19: Fighting against the virus from the territory, by Ricardo Fort and Álvaro Espinoza
April 8, 2020 Urbanization and sustainable cities
“Prevention and control measures should be established for those geographical areas where the risks and consequences of the spread of the disease are greatest”. Read the new article by Ricardo Fort and Alvaro Espinoza for El Comercio. Our researchers explain their analysis to identify the supply centers located within the priority areas in Lima: those with the largest number […]
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Opinion Article, Media GRADE, GRADE frente al COVID-19
Potenciales focos de contagio del COVID-19: mercados y supermercados
April 5, 2020 Urbanization and sustainable cities
Los mercados de abasto y supermercados son, y seguirán siendo por un tiempo, los principales puntos de aglomeración en la ciudad. Complementando nuestro análisis de áreas de alta vulnerabilidad ante el virus en Lima, presentamos aquí la identificación georeferenciada de mercados y supermercados que atienden a esta población, así como sugerencias para mejorar la estrategia […]
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Álvaro Espinoza’s opinion on the housing shortage and challenges for access to formal housing in Peru
January 2, 2025 Urbanization and sustainable cities
“Although the Techo Propio programme offers bonds to help families acquire housing, these bonds are conditioned to obtaining a mortgage loan, which is difficult in a country where more than 70% of the population works in the informal sector and is not considered creditworthy by banks”. Our Adjunct Researcher Álvaro Espinoza shares his thoughts on the challenges […]
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Alvaro Espinoza’s opinion: Seven out of every 10 homes in the national urban area are self-built
May 29, 2024 Urbanization and sustainable cities
“It is construction without plans, on the fly, without respecting standards and structural safety. The people who build just repeat what was done in a previous work. There are houses that use even more material than they need because there are no correct calculations either.” Our Adjunct Researcher Alvaro Espinoza shared his opinion in a […]
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“Urban expansion should have been planned since the project began to be considered”. Alvaro Espinoza’s opinion on Chancay’s mega-port
April 9, 2024 Urbanization and sustainable cities
“For them to start worrying about how the city is going to expand at this point is untimely. Urban expansion should have been planned since the project began to be considered”. Alvaro Espinoza, adjunct researcher at GRADE, writes in El Comercio about the housing demands due to the construction of the Chancay mega-port.
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Alvaro Espinoza: “What most modern cities are trying to do is to have more integrated cities”
June 27, 2023 Urbanization and sustainable cities
“What most modern cities are trying to do is to have more integrated cities, where you have people from different socioeconomic sectors and walks of life living in a more mixed way. That makes the city more efficient and people are closer to where they study and where they work.” Our Adjunct Researcher Alvaro Espinoza […]
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Alvaro Espinoza in Latina: decree grants property titles in risk areas
February 22, 2022 Urbanization and sustainable cities
The Informal Property Formalization Agency (Cofopri) is preparing a decree that would grant property titles to owners of informal buildings located in risk areas. Our Adjunct Researcher Alvaro Espinoza analyzes this decree in the Latina report and maintains that “what this bill is doing is increasing the profitability of land traffickers even more.” See the full reportage here.
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Interview, Media GRADE, GRADE frente al COVID-19
Alvaro Espinoza in TV Perú: food markets in priority areas of prevention and control for COVID-19
April 9, 2020 Urbanization and sustainable cities
“We have looked at the areas with characteristics such as higher concentration of elderly, greater overcrowding in households, higher population density, and lack of water.” Alvaro Espinoza, adjunct researcher at GRADE, spoke with TVPerú about the identification of markets and supermarkets that serve the population living in areas of high vulnerability to the virus in […]
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Alvaro Espinoza in La Mula: “Between 2000 and 2018, Lima has grown almost 40% in area, only horizontally”
January 17, 2020
“Between 2000 and 2018, Lima has grown almost 40% in area, only horizontally. The vast majority of that growth has been messy, without following a plan. Moreover, 90% of that growth are informal neighborhoods”. Our Adjunct Researcher, Alvaro Espinoza, talked with Javier Torres, of La Mula, about the challenges and possibilities for the city. Mariana […]
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Espinoza and Fort’s study on urban expansion of the last 20 years in Peru is quoted in Somos Periodismo PUCP
August 24, 2023 Urbanization and sustainable cities
“For those with scarce resources, the option is to invade a plot of land or buy it in the illegal market. According to a study conducted by GRADE, 93% of the country’s urban expansion is developed informally”. Somos Periodismo PUCP quoted the study by our researchers Alvaro Espinoza and Ricardo Fort on the internal dynamics […]
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The right to a decent housing. An Infobae article cited study by Alvaro Espinoza and Ricardo Fort
August 22, 2023
“Annually, 127 thousand new homes are built, 84 thousand of which are built informally; therefore, there is still a housing deficit that is growing every year”. Lawyer Giancarlo Vega highlights the findings of the study by our researchers Alvaro Espinoza and Ricardo Fort, “Towards a new housing policy in Peru: problems and possibilities (“Hacia una […]
