I graduated from the Catholic University of Chile with a B.S. in economics.  Then I earned a Ph.D. in economics from UCLA.  My first appointment was in 1986 as an assistant professor at the Claremont Graduate University, in Claremont, California.  In 1991 I arrived at Texas A&M and in 1995 I was promoted to Associate Professor.  My area of interest is labor economics.  My current research focuses on human capital and labor markets in Latin America.  In particular, I am studying the educational attainment of Nicaraguan children and the labor force participation of married women throughout the Caribbean and Latin America.