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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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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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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¿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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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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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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Young People’s Mental Health in Unprecedented Times: Research Report from Round 7 in Ethiopia, India and Peru
2025 Julia Quigua, Marta Favara, Alan Sanchez
This report presents preliminary findings on young people’s mental health from the seventh round of the Young Lives survey conducted in Ethiopia, India and Peru in 2023–24, when the Younger Cohort was aged 22 and the Older Cohort was aged 29. According to Round 7 data, in India and Peru, levels of anxiety and depression […]
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Young Lives attrition report: Round 7
2025 María de los Ángeles Molina, Marta Favara, Alan Sanchez, Amanda Woodman
Over more than 20 years, Young Lives has followed two cohorts born seven years apart (Favara et al. 2021). This technical note documents the attrition rates from the seventh round of the Young Lives survey carried out in Ethiopia, India (the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana) and Peru in 2023–24, when the Younger Cohort […]
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Data matching: Construction of COVID-19 – related variables for Young Lives Peru
2024 Alessandra Hidalgo, Alan Sanchez, Santos Zhu
This Technical Note outlines the COVID-19 matched dataset from the Young Lives cohorts in Peru created by the Young Lives team. The matched dataset combines COVID-19 administrative data with the extensive longitudinal data set from the Young Lives study in Peru. The authors document the steps taken to create a set of variables that measure […]
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How early nutrition and foundational cognitive skills interconnect? Evidence from two developing countries
2022 Alan Sanchez, Marta Favara, Margaret Sheridan, Jere R. Behrman
We use unique data collected in Ethiopia and Peru as part of the Young Lives Study to investigate the relationship between early undernutrition and four foundational cognitive skills, the first two of which measure executive functioning: working memory, inhibitory control, long-term memory, and implicit learning. We exploit the rich longitudinal data available to control for […]
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How early nutrition and foundational cognitive skills interconnect? Evidence from two developing countries
2022 Alan Sanchez, Marta Favara, Margaret Sheridan, Jere R. Behrman
While the long-term consequences of early stunting on educational attainment and on school achievement tests are well-known, there is scarce evidence about the specific mechanisms through which early stunting leads to poorer educational outcomes, especially in LMIC contexts. We use unique data collected in Ethiopia and Peru as part of the Young Lives to investigate […]
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JournalJournal of Development Economics
The long shadow of conflict on human capital: Intergenerational evidence from Peru
2025 Alessandra Hidalgo, Catherine Porter, Alan Sanchez, Saurabh Singhal
This paper estimates the intergenerational impacts of mothers’ exposure to the 1980–2000 Peruvian civil conflict on their children’s socio-emotional skills development. We combine longitudinal data, which measures skills across a child’s life, with historical geo-located conflict data. Exploiting spatial and temporal variation in conflict episodes, we find that mothers’ exposure to conflict has adverse intergenerational […]
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JournalEconomics & Human Biology
Long-term effects of early life rainfall shocks on foundational cognitive skills: Evidence from Peru
2024 Nicolás Pazos, Marta Favara, Alan Sanchez, Douglas Scott, Jere Behrman
Global warming is changing precipitation patterns, particularly harming communities in low-and-middle income countries (LMICs). Whilst the long-term effects of being exposed to rainfall shocks early in life on school-achievement tests are well-established, there is little population-based evidence from LMICs on the mechanisms through which these shocks operate. Executive functions (EFs) are key for children’s learning […]
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JournalEconomics of Education Review
Late-childhood foundational cognitive skills predict educational outcomes through adolescence and into young adulthood: Evidence from Ethiopia and Peru
2024 Jennifer López, Jere R. Behrman, Santiago Cueto, Marta Favara, Alan Sanchez
We estimate associations between foundational cognitive skills (inhibitory control, working memory, long-term memory, and implicit learning) measured at age 12 and educational outcomes measured at ages 15 and 19–20 in Ethiopia and Peru, using the Young Lives data. The estimates adjust for rich sets of controls and include measurements of children’s baseline abilities. For a […]
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JournalWorld Development
Does early nutrition predict cognitive skills during later childhood? Evidence from two developing countries
2024 Alan Sanchez, Marta Favara, Margaret Sheridan, Jere R. Behrman
The existing evidence linking early undernutrition to educational outcomes in developing countries is largely focused on assessing its impacts on grade attainment and achievement test scores, with limited evidence on the foundational cognitive skills required to perform well at school. We use unique data collected in Ethiopia and Peru as part of the Young Lives […]
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JournalHigher Education Quarterly
‘Marketization’ of higher education in Peru: Who attends private institutions and what are the perceived advantages (disadvantages)?
2023 Amrit Thapa, Alejandra Miranda, Alan Sanchez, Jere R. Behrman
Debate continues on the effects of the global proliferation of private higher-educational institutions, especially for-profit institutions. The authors examine two related questions for Peru using mixed methods: Who attends private institutions and what are their perceived advantages/disadvantages? Longitudinal quantitative data suggest higher-educational segmentation starting early in life, whereby young people from wealthier households attended private […]
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Productividad sectorial en el Perú: un análisis a nivel de firmas
Productividad en el Perú: medición, determinantes e implicancias2016 Nikita Céspedes, Maria E. Aquije, Alan Sanchez, Rafael Vera-Tudela
This paper estimates the production function at the firm level of the Peruvian economy, which allows us to characterise the productivity of the firm through its total factor productivity and its labour productivity. The data correspond to all formal firms that reported data between 2002 and 2011. This information allows us to correct for the […]
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The Challenges of Inequality and COVID-19 for Young People in Peru: Evidence from the Listening to Young Lives at Work COVID-19 Phone Survey
2021 Kath Ford, Santiago Cueto, Alan Sanchez
This policy brief looks at the impact of COVID-19 on the lives of adolescents and young people in Peru as they transition into adulthood, focusing on how widening inequalities are hitting those from disadvantaged backgrounds hardest.
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Estratificación de los retornos a la educación superior en el Perú: El rol de la calidad de la educación y las opciones de carrera
2021 Alan Sanchez, Marta Favara, Catherine Porter
This policy brief analyses the situation in Latin America and the Caribbean with respect to their levels of growth in the higher education attendance rate. In the case of Peru, the gross attendance rate at this level increased between 2001 and 2019 (for 17-21 year olds). In this context of increased access, the quality of […]
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Do more school resources increase learning outcomes? Evidence from an extended school-day reform
2021 Jorge M. Agüero, Marta Favara, Catherine Porter, Alan Sanchez
It remains an open debate whether allocating more resources improves the learning outcomes of students in low-performing public schools. We focus on the effect of increased instructional time, which is theoretically ambiguous due to possible compensatory changes in student, teacher or parent effort. Using a regression discontinuity approach, we find that a reform that extends […]
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Understanding teenage fertility, cohabitation, and marriage: the case of Peru
2016 Alan Sanchez, Marta Favara, Pablo Lavado
In the Young Lives’s surveys and national statistics, 1 in 5 women had at least one child by the age of 19. It is proposed to strengthen public policies to delay teenage pregnancy: complete secondary school, improve sex education and promote self-confidence.
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El impacto del programa Juntos sobre la nutrición temprana
2013 Miguel Jaramillo, Alan Sanchez
A&P basado en los hallazgos más destacados del estudio de Miguel Jaramillo y Alan Sánchez, publicado en el DI 61 de GRADE y en la Revista Estudios Económicos 23 del BCR, "Impacto del programa Juntos sobre nutrición temprana"
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Projects
- The influence of executive functions in the mental health of vulnerable adolescents: a multi-site focus and of low- and medium-income countriesOctober 2018
- Relationship between adolescent pregnancy and adolescent maternity and educational and labor outcomes: an approach based on ENDES dataMay 2018
- Replicating the eligibility rule of the Juntos program: 2005-2017February 2018
- Transitions from the school to the labor market and higher education in PeruFebruary 2018
- Young Lives Peru 2017-2018April 2017
- Technical assistance for the preparation of a cost-effectiveness analysis report of the pilot of an alternative cash transfer incentives schemes of JuntosSeptember 2016
- Young Lives PeruApril 2016
- ¡Expande tu mente! Activando el potencial educativo de estudiantes de bajo rendimiento en Perú a través de una intervención psicológicaJuly 2015
- Elaboration of a methodological proposal for the National Evaluation ECERS-R and EDI in 2014November 2013 - December 2013
- Public expenditure on Latin American Children: How much and how effective?September 2013 - December 2013
Media
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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 […]
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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
