Alan Sánchez Jiménez
Senior Researcher
PhD in Economics - University of Oxford
asanchez@grade.org.pe
Alan has a DPhil in Economics from the University of Oxford, where hi also holds a Master’s degree in Economics for Development. Currently, he holds dual affiliations as a Senior Researcher at the Oxford Department of International Development (ODID) at the University of Oxford, and a Senior Researcher at the Group for the Analysis of Development (GRADE). Between 2012 and 2023, he was a Senior Researcher for the Young Lives Study and a Visiting Resarcher at ODID. Previously, he was an Economic Research Specialist in the Economic Research Division of the Central Bank of Peru and taught courses on quantitative methods for impact evaluation and social development policies. His areas of interest include impact evaluation, economics of education, health economics, labor economics, and behavioral economics. He is particularly interested in measuring the causes and consequences of accumulating human capital throughout the life cycle, evaluating public programs through experimental and quasi-experimental methodology, and survey design.
Publications
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Young Lives Two Decades of Findings and Future Research Opportunities: Employment
2026 Marta Favara, Kath Ford, Alan Sanchez, Tanima Tanima
This report presents the key findings emerging from over 20 years of Young Lives’ quantitative and qualitative data and research on employment, with a strong focus on women’s economic empowerment. It also highlights Young Lives’ significant contribution to related policy debates, showcases impact case studies, presents the latest trends based on preliminary analysis of Round […]
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Young Lives Two Decades of Findings and Future Research Opportunities: Family Lives
2026 Marta Favara, Kath Ford, Joanna Mihaylova, Alan Sanchez, Tanima Tanima
This report presents key findings from over 20 years of Young Lives’ quantitative and qualitative data and research on experiences of family lives, and how gender inequalities have an impact on life outcomes for young people and their families. It also highlights the study’s significant contribution to related policy debates, showcases impact case studies, presents […]
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Young Lives Two Decades of Findings and Future Research Opportunities: Health and Well-being
2026 Marta Favara, Kath Ford, Julia Quigua Chinchilla, Alan Sanchez, Sophie von Russdorf
This report presents key findings from over 20 years of quantitative and qualitative research by Young Lives on nutrition, health and well-being, exploring how widening inequalities – exacerbated by shocks and crises – affect the resilience of vulnerable young people and threaten to reverse recent gains in health and well-being, with consequences extending to the […]
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Young Lives Two Decades of Findings and Future Research Opportunities: Education and Skills
2026 Marta Favara, Kath Ford, María de los Ángeles Molina, Alan Sanchez, Amanda Woodman Deza,
This report presents key findings from over 20 years of quantitative and qualitative research by Young Lives on schooling, cognitive skills, socio-emotional skills and the transition to higher education. It also highlights Young Lives’ significant contributions to education policy debates, showcases impact case studies, presents the latest trends in education and skills based on preliminary […]
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JournalSSM - Population Health
Factors Associated with Mental Health among Young Adults: Cross-Country Longitudinal Evidence from Ethiopia, India, and Peru
Marta Favara, Richard Freund, Juliana Quigua, Alan Sanchez
This study investigates contingent and longitudinal predictors of mental health in early adulthood, using unique, harmonized panel data from the Young Lives study in Ethiopia, India, and Peru, spanning over two decades across diverse settings. It accounts for factors and events occurring during the most significant developmental stages, from infancy through childhood and adolescence. It […]
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Young Lives Two Decades of Findings and Future Research Opportunities: Employment
2026 Marta Favara, Kath Ford, Alan Sanchez, Tanima Tanima
This report presents the key findings emerging from over 20 years of Young Lives’ quantitative and qualitative data and research on employment, with a strong focus on women’s economic empowerment. It also highlights Young Lives’ significant contribution to related policy debates, showcases impact case studies, presents the latest trends based on preliminary analysis of Round […]
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Young Lives Two Decades of Findings and Future Research Opportunities: Family Lives
2026 Marta Favara, Kath Ford, Joanna Mihaylova, Alan Sanchez, Tanima Tanima
This report presents key findings from over 20 years of Young Lives’ quantitative and qualitative data and research on experiences of family lives, and how gender inequalities have an impact on life outcomes for young people and their families. It also highlights the study’s significant contribution to related policy debates, showcases impact case studies, presents […]
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Young Lives Two Decades of Findings and Future Research Opportunities: Health and Well-being
2026 Marta Favara, Kath Ford, Julia Quigua Chinchilla, Alan Sanchez, Sophie von Russdorf
This report presents key findings from over 20 years of quantitative and qualitative research by Young Lives on nutrition, health and well-being, exploring how widening inequalities – exacerbated by shocks and crises – affect the resilience of vulnerable young people and threaten to reverse recent gains in health and well-being, with consequences extending to the […]
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Young Lives Two Decades of Findings and Future Research Opportunities: Education and Skills
2026 Marta Favara, Kath Ford, María de los Ángeles Molina, Alan Sanchez, Amanda Woodman Deza,
This report presents key findings from over 20 years of quantitative and qualitative research by Young Lives on schooling, cognitive skills, socio-emotional skills and the transition to higher education. It also highlights Young Lives’ significant contributions to education policy debates, showcases impact case studies, presents the latest trends in education and skills based on preliminary […]
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Life-Course Shocks and Food Insecurity: Longitudinal Evidence from Ethiopia, India, and Peru
2025 Marta Favara, Alan Sanchez, Juliana Quiua
This study investigates the relationship between life-cycle exposure to socioeconomic shocks and subsequent food insecurity in young adult households. Using two decades of longitudinal data (2002-2023) from the Young Lives study in Ethiopia, India, and Peru, we analyse how the timing of shocks influences current household food security. Our findings consistently demonstrate a significant association […]
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JournalSSM - Population Health
Factors Associated with Mental Health among Young Adults: Cross-Country Longitudinal Evidence from Ethiopia, India, and Peru
Marta Favara, Richard Freund, Juliana Quigua, Alan Sanchez
This study investigates contingent and longitudinal predictors of mental health in early adulthood, using unique, harmonized panel data from the Young Lives study in Ethiopia, India, and Peru, spanning over two decades across diverse settings. It accounts for factors and events occurring during the most significant developmental stages, from infancy through childhood and adolescence. It […]
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JournalJournal of Economic Psychology
When choice matters: The asymmetric effects of precommitment implementation on healthy food choice
2026 Marta Favara, Joanna Mihaylova, Alan Sanchez
This paper investigates the role of precommitment in making healthy food choices, using a lab-in-the-field experiment embedded in the Young Lives longitudinal study in Peru. Leveraging the fact that participants were scheduled for a blood test and would therefore require a snack afterwards, we elicited participants’ snack choice from a predefined set. Participants were asked […]
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JournalJournal of Human Resources
Human Capital Development New Evidence on the Production of Socio-Emotional Skills
2025 Mark Mitchell, Marta Favara, Catherine Porter, Alan Sanchez
We estimate a dynamic model of socio-emotional skill development between ages eight and 22 for a Peruvian cohort born in 1994. At age eight there is no wealth gradient, in contrast to cognitive skills. However, by age 12, inequalities emerge and widen through age 19, driven by differential household investments, and cross-productivity with cognitive skills. […]
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Unpacking the COVID-19 gender employment gap among young people in the global south
2025 Douglas Scott, Richard Freund, Marta Favara, Catherine Porter, Alan Sanchez
We provide new evidence on the employment gap between young men and women in three low- and middle-income countries during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. We estimate a year-end increase of 17–18 percentage points in Peru and India (Andhra Pradesh and Telangana), and 9.5 percentage points in Vietnam. A mediation approach is used […]
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JournalClinical Nutrition ESPEN
Interaction between genetic risk score and dietary carbohydrate intake on high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels: Findings from the study of obesity, nutrition, genes and social factors (SONGS)
2025 Ramatu Wuni, Katherine Curi-Quinto, Litai Liu, Dianela Espinoza, Anthony I. Aquino, Juana del Valle-Mendoza, Miguel Angel Aguilar-Luis, Claudia Murray, Richard Nunes, Lisa Methven, Julie A. Lovegrove, Mary Penny, Marta Favara, Alan Sanchez, Karani Santhanakrishnan Vimaleswaran
Cardiometabolic traits are complex interrelated traits that result from a combination of genetic and lifestyle factors. This study aimed to assess the interaction between genetic variants and dietary macronutrient intake on cardiometabolic traits [body mass index, waist circumference, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triacylglycerol, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, fasting […]
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Interrupción escolar en secundaria en el Perú: datos, evidencia y políticas
Ensino médio, educação integral e tempo ampliado na América Latina: Vol. 2. Cenários e desafi os contemporâneos2025 Vanessa Rojas, Antonio Campos, Santiago Cueto, Alan Sanchez
Discontinuation of schooling by students in secondary education in Peru is a critical problem that impacts the development of young people and their future opportunities. Despite advances in educational coverage, structural challenges persist that unequally affect different groups of students. This paper examines trends in secondary school dropout, its main causes and the public policies […]
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Trayectorias educativas a lo largo del ciclo de vida: El rol de la pobreza, el área de residencia y las brechas de género
El Perú pendiente: ensayos para un desarrollo con bienestar2022 Alan Sanchez
The paper documents the evolution of educational gaps throughout the life cycle, analyzes the links between poverty and gender gaps, and attempts to identify the factors that mediate this relationship in order to propose policy recommendations for children, adolescents and youth.
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La transición hacia el mercado laboral y los estudios postsecundarios en Perú: evidencia del estudio Niños del Milenio
Millennials en América Latina y el Caribe: ¿trabajar o estudiar?2018 Marta Favara, Alan Sanchez
Unlike the previous chapters, the report on Peru draws on a unique source of information: the Young Lives study, which collected longitudinal data. For 15 years, this research followed two groups of adolescents and young people born in the years 1994-1995 and 2001-2002, respectively. Drawing on the information obtained, this chapter pursues two objectives. The […]
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Diez años Juntos: un balance de la investigación del impacto del programa de transferencias condicionadas del Perú sobre el capital humano
Investigación para el desarrollo en el Perú: once balances2016 Alan Sanchez, María Gracia Rodríguez
Juntos is the Peruvian government’s conditional cash transfer program. In recent years, a number of impact evaluations have been carried out with the aim of measuring the effect of Juntos on its conditionalities (the use of health and education services), as well as on the human capital accumulated by the beneficiaries. This study seeks to […]
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Productividad y apertura comercial en el Perú
Productividad en el Perú: medición, determinantes e implicancias2016 Nikita Céspedes, Maria E. Aquije, Alan Sanchez, Rafael Vera-Tudela
We study the relationship between productivity and trade openness in Peru. We find that firms that participate in international trade, either as exporters and/or importers, have systematically higher productivity compared to those that only produce for the domestic market. Free trade agreements, on average, generate a positive productivity gap, and firms that export to the […]
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What Works to Reduce Child Poverty in Peru?
2026 Kath Ford, Alan Sanchez, Santiago Cueto
This case study presents evidence on what works to reduce child poverty in Peru, drawing from over two decades of data from the Young Lives study, demonstrating the unique value of longitudinal research in tracking human development across the life course and providing crucial insights for effective policy change. Peru has achieved significant reductions in […]
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Interrupción escolar y vulnerabilidad educativa en el Perú
2024 Vanessa Rojas, Antonio Campos, Santiago Cueto, Alan Sanchez
This document presents an analysis of school interruption in Peru, highlighting both its multi-causal nature and its disproportionate impact on the students affected. This phenomenon is the result of factors that often arise beforehand in vulnerable populations, such as rural, indigenous and extremely poor populations. Factors such as low educational quality aggravate the interruption of […]
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Las habilidades cognitivas medidas durante la adolescencia predicen los resultados educativos: Evidencia de Etiopia y Perú
2023 Jennifer López, Jere R. Behrman, Santiago Cueto, Marta Favara, Alan Sanchez
Utilizando datos de Niños del Milenio (NdM), se investiga la asociación entre las habilidades cognitivas medidas a los 12 años y los resultados educativos medidos a los 15 y 20 años. Los y las jóvenes con mayores puntajes en memoria de largo plazo y memoria de trabajo mostraron mejores resultados en las pruebas de vocabulario, […]
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El impacto del COVID-19 sobre la salud mental de jóvenes en el Perú
2023 Alan Sanchez, Marta Favara, Kath Ford, Annina Hittmeyer, Catherine Porter, Richard Freund, Douglas Scott
Using data from the longitudinal Young Lives (NdM for its acronym in Spanish) study, this bulletin documents factors associated with symptoms of anxiety and depression in 19-26 year olds in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam during the pandemic. Of the four countries, Peru was the most affected by COVID-19, and this was reflected in mental […]
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El impacto de JUNTOS en las habilidades cognitivas fundamentales: ¿Importa la edad de incorporación del niño o niña al programa?
2023 Douglas Scott, Jennifer López, Alan Sanchez, Jere Behrman
Using longitudinal data from Young Lives (NdM for its acronym in Spanish) sibling pairs, we explore the importance of the age of initial exposure to the JUNTOS programme on the development of a set of key cognitive skills. Younger siblings who benefit from JUNTOS from an early age achieve significant improvements in inhibitory control skills – […]
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¿Qué hemos aprendido del estudio longitudinal Niños del Milenio en el Perú? Nuevos hallazgos y desafíos pendientes (2018-2025)
Antonio Campos, Sofía Madrid, Santiago Cueto, Katherine Curi-Quinto, Javier Escobal, Dianela Espinoza, Monica Lizama, , Vanessa Rojas, Alan Sanchez
Niños del Milenio, conocido internacionalmente como Young Lives, es una investigación de largo plazo que estudia cómo cambian la pobreza y las oportunidades de niñas, niños y jóvenes en países de ingresos bajos y medios. Durante más de dos décadas, el estudio ha seguido de cerca a dos grupos en el Perú: quienes tenían alrededor […]
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¿Qué hemos aprendido del estudio longitudinal Niños del Milenio? Síntesis de hallazgos
2018 Santiago Cueto, Javier Escobal, , Nicolás Pazos, Mary Penny, Vanessa Rojas, Alan Sanchez, Claudia Felipe
The Young Lives Peru Country Report presents a summary of the main findings that emerge from analysing the Young Lives data from Peru across a longitudinal study following two cohorts of children in various situations from remote rural areas to urban communities, as a component of a larger multicountry project. The study relates conditions early […]
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Habilidades, formación para el trabajo y subempleo juvenil: un enfoque de ciclo de vida
2019 Alan Sanchez
This study uses longitudinal data from the Young Lives study to establish which are the most important aspects that predict access to job formation and the labour market at age 22. Results highlight the role of cognitive skills, socio-emotional competencies, and the socio-economic level of the household to explain access to higher education institutions and […]
Projects
- Young Lives Peru round seven: data cleaning, analysis and researchApril 2024
- The Making of a Public Sector Worker: The Causal Effects of Temporary Work Assignments to Poor AreasSeptember 2023
- Young Lives Round 7 : surveys and analysisApril 2023
- Risk and protective factors for young people’s mental health and well-being: Young Lives Peru’s round 7.April 2023
- Analysis of factors associated with overweight and obesity and validation of the instrument of frequency and quantity of food consumptionOctober 2019
- Impact evaluation course for the Superintendency of Banking and InsuranceMay 2019
- Searching for evidence that conceptualize and structure the public problem for designing a comprehensive protection policy for children and adolescentsApril 2019
- Inequality of opportunity in Peru: How can young people develop relevant skills and find decent employment in a rapidly changing job market?December 2018
- Measuring the prevalence of physical and psychological violence against children and teenagers: evidence of Young Lives PeruNovember 2018
- Commercialization of higher education in Peru: economic and equity implicationsNovember 2018
Media
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Agencia Andina highlights study by Niños del Milenio on the impact of JUNTOS on fundamental cognitive skills
February 6, 2023 Poverty and equality
Agencia de Noticias Andina highlighted the findings of a recent study by Douglas Scott, Jennifer López, Alan Sánchez y Jere Behrman, that explores the relevance of the age of initial exposure to the JUNTOS program in the development of a set of fundamental cognitive skills. Using longitudinal data from Young Lives Peru, Scott et al. (2022) study […]
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Studies by GRADE researchers on the minimum wage are quoted by IPE via El Comercio
October 18, 2021 Employment, productivity and innovation
The Peruvian Institute of Economics explains why the results found by David Card, 2021 Nobel Laureate in Economics —that a minimum wage increase does not necessarily generate unemployment— would not be applicable for Peru. In the article, he quotes the work of our senior researchers Alan Sánchez, Miguel Jaramillo, and Hugo Ñopo.
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Oswaldo Molina highlights Alan Sanchez and Marta Favara findings on the impact of JEC on teenage pregnancy
July 22, 2019 Ethnicity, gender and citizenship
An op-ed by Oswaldo Molina, director of the Master in Economics at the Universidad del Pacífico, in El Comercio, highlights the findings of Alan Sanchez, Senior Researcher at GRADE and Young Lives Peru, and Marta Favara, Researcher at the University of Oxford, on the impact of the Peruvian extended school-day reform (Jornada Escolar Completa, JEC) on several […]
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Alan Sánchez shares the main quantitative findings of Niños del Milenio/Young Lives Peru
July 24, 2018 Education and learning, Poverty and equality, Health and nutrition
We share a Southern Voice article by our senior researcher, Alan Sánchez, on the main quantitative findings of Niños del Milenio/Young Lives Peru. After tracking 2,750 children for 15 years in Peru, unique evidence about the role of social programs, differences in nutritional and educational trajectories, and skills formation, has been collected.
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Stories about children. Oswaldo Molina writes about the 15 years of Young Lives Peru
June 23, 2018 Education and learning, Poverty and equality, Health and nutrition
What is it like to be a poor child in Peru? Oswaldo Molina, director of the Master’s in Economics at Universidad del Pacífico, writes in El Comercio about the findings of Young Lives Peru during 15 years of research. Although, in general terms, the study shows that the welfare of families has improved in these […]
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Alan Sánchez shares the main quantitative findings of Niños del Milenio/Young Lives Peru
July 24, 2018 Education and learning, Poverty and equality, Health and nutrition
We share a Southern Voice article by our senior researcher, Alan Sánchez, on the main quantitative findings of Niños del Milenio/Young Lives Peru. After tracking 2,750 children for 15 years in Peru, unique evidence about the role of social programs, differences in nutritional and educational trajectories, and skills formation, has been collected.
No se han encontrado novedades de Alan Sanchez en la categoría Comment
No se han encontrado novedades de Alan Sanchez en la categoría Interview
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Agencia Andina highlights study by Niños del Milenio on the impact of JUNTOS on fundamental cognitive skills
February 6, 2023 Poverty and equality
Agencia de Noticias Andina highlighted the findings of a recent study by Douglas Scott, Jennifer López, Alan Sánchez y Jere Behrman, that explores the relevance of the age of initial exposure to the JUNTOS program in the development of a set of fundamental cognitive skills. Using longitudinal data from Young Lives Peru, Scott et al. (2022) study […]
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Studies by GRADE researchers on the minimum wage are quoted by IPE via El Comercio
October 18, 2021 Employment, productivity and innovation
The Peruvian Institute of Economics explains why the results found by David Card, 2021 Nobel Laureate in Economics —that a minimum wage increase does not necessarily generate unemployment— would not be applicable for Peru. In the article, he quotes the work of our senior researchers Alan Sánchez, Miguel Jaramillo, and Hugo Ñopo.
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Oswaldo Molina highlights Alan Sanchez and Marta Favara findings on the impact of JEC on teenage pregnancy
July 22, 2019 Ethnicity, gender and citizenship
An op-ed by Oswaldo Molina, director of the Master in Economics at the Universidad del Pacífico, in El Comercio, highlights the findings of Alan Sanchez, Senior Researcher at GRADE and Young Lives Peru, and Marta Favara, Researcher at the University of Oxford, on the impact of the Peruvian extended school-day reform (Jornada Escolar Completa, JEC) on several […]
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Stories about children. Oswaldo Molina writes about the 15 years of Young Lives Peru
June 23, 2018 Education and learning, Poverty and equality, Health and nutrition
What is it like to be a poor child in Peru? Oswaldo Molina, director of the Master’s in Economics at Universidad del Pacífico, writes in El Comercio about the findings of Young Lives Peru during 15 years of research. Although, in general terms, the study shows that the welfare of families has improved in these […]
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Peru: If You Think You Can Get Smarter, You Will
June 20, 2017 Education and learning
Get a closer look at the evidence on the impact of “Expand your Mind”, a low-cost and short-term innovation conducted by researchers Ingo Outes from University of Oxford, Alan Sánchez from the Group for the Analysis of Development, and Renos Vakis from the World Bank, with the aim to conveying to students the idea that intelligence can grow […]
Selected Publications
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Young Lives, interrupted: Short-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on adolescents in low- and middle-income countries
2022 Marta Favara, Richard Freund, Catherine Porter, Alan Sanchez, Douglass Scott
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Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on anxiety and depression symptoms of young people in the global south: Evidence from a four-country cohort study
2021 Alan Sanchez, Catherine Porter, Marta Favara, Annina Hittmeyer, Douglas Scott, Michelle G Craske, Revathi Ellanki, Tassew Woldehanna, Le Thuc Duc, Alan Stein
