Ricardo Villasmil

Ricardo Villasmil joined the Center for International Development’s Growth Lab as a Research Fellow in 2017.

Before joining CID, he worked in private consulting in Venezuela managing projects on a wide range of strategic and organizational issues for over a decade.

His interests in development economics led him to the Andrés Bello Catholic University and to the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración (IESA), where he has been teaching courses in development and macroeconomics for the past fifteen years.

Ricardo’s involvement in public policy dates back to 1998, when he joined Venezuela’s Congressional Budget Office and the Ministry of Finance two years later. His interests in the practice of development prompted him to take advisory roles for Teodoro Petkoff in the 2006 runoff presidential election, for the democratic coalition between 2006 and 2012 and for presidential candidate Henrique Capriles as Head of his Public Policy Team in 2012.

Ricardo holds a Master in Public Policy from IESA, a Master in Public Administration from Harvard University and a PhD in Economics from Texas A&M University.

Jorge Tapia

Jorge Tapia rejoined Harvard’s Growth Lab as a Research Fellow in 2022. He held a similar position from 2017 to 2020.

Jorge served as Executive Secretary of the Sustainable Projects Management Office for Chile’s Ministry of Economy, Development and Tourism from 2020 – 2022. Previously, Jorge worked six years at the Chilean Ministry of Finance as a Capital Markets Advisor and Deputy Executive Director of the Financial Stability Council (FSC). During this time, he actively participated in the design, discussion and implementation of some of the most important legal initiatives of the capital markets agenda; led the work of the working groups that the FSC created; and coordinated the work of high-level commissions and technical assistances. Additionally, he was Chile’s representative on the OECD Committee on Financial Markets. Jorge also was Head of Research at MCC, a financial service company in Chile, and a summer intern at the Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs at the OECD. In parallel with his other professional duties, he was an Economics professor at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile for five years.

Jorge holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and a Master’s degree in Financial Economics from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. He also holds a Master in Public Administration in International Development from Harvard University.

Tim Cheston

Timothy Cheston joined the Growth Lab as a Research Fellow in 2014.

Prior to joining CID, Tim worked for the World Bank in the Social Protection and Labor team for the Latin America and Caribbean region, where he led in the design, negotiation, and supervision of major social protection and labor projects and research in the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Bolivia, and Belize. His experience also includes research on the use of psychometric screening tools for small business financing in South Africa with the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) Africa. He also serves on the Board of Empowerment Health, an NGO providing community-based maternal and child health services in Afghanistan. Previously, Tim led remittance research with the Inter-American Dialogue, worked on microfinance with FINRURAL in Bolivia, and lived in the Dominican Republic, serving undocumented Haitian immigrants through the Dominican Literacy Project.

His research interests focus on: the role of economic diversification in explaining differences in growth between countries as within them; the use of growth diagnostics to formulate more effective economic strategy-making to unlock structural transformation processes; and the formulation of inclusive growth via productive development policies that better integrate the poor into high-productivity activities.

Tim holds a BA in the Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs from Princeton University and a Master’s in Public Administration in International Development (MPA/ID) from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Sebastian Bustos

Sebastian Bustos is a Research Fellow at the Center for International Development at Harvard University. His research interests are the development of the private sector and how governments can solve market failures to accelerate the process. Sebastian holds a B.S. in Economics and Business Administration from University of Chile and a Masters in Public Administration / International Development from the Harvard Kennedy School. Before his studies at Harvard, Sebastian served as Economic Adviser to the Minister of Finance of Chile, focusing on capital markets and tax reforms. In recent years he has been a consultant for IADB, CAF and a number of national governments regarding industrial policy issues. Sebastian was born in Chile, loves traveling and sporting activities.

Douglas Barrios

Douglas Barrios is the Director of Policy Research at Harvard’s Growth Lab, where he oversees the Lab’s portfolio of applied research collaborations with governments, multilateral organizations, and foundations worldwide. In this role, he leads the conceptualization of new research projects, talent management for a team of 40+ research fellows, and provides guidance — alongside Principal Investigator Ricardo Hausmann — across the Lab’s active country and policy research engagements.

Since joining the Growth Lab as a Research Fellow in 2015, Douglas has led and contributed to multidisciplinary research projects aimed at diagnosing growth constraints and designing strategies for productive diversification and inclusive growth. His work has spanned research projects in Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Central and South Asia, Southeast Asia, and sub-national engagements in North America and Australia — applying growth diagnostics and economic complexity methodologies to inform policy at the national, regional, and city levels.

Previously, he worked in McKinsey’s Bogotá office as a Public Sector Specialist, serving public and social sector organizations across Latin America on topics including ICT promotion and education policy design. He also served as an external policy adviser for local governments and political campaigns in Venezuela.

Douglas holds a Master’s in Public Administration and International Development from the Harvard Kennedy School (MPA-ID 2012) and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Universidad Metropolitana in Venezuela.