Verónica C. Pérez

I am a third-year PhD candidate in economics at Boston University. My research focuses on development and growth, international trade and economic history, with a strong emphasis on computational and data-driven methods. Most of my work applies machine learning and text analysis to investigate complex economic questions.

My joint work with Prof. Réka Juhász and Prof. Nathaniel Lane, Measuring Industrial Policy: A Text-Based Apprach, has been featured in Bloomberg,The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and other outlets.

Before my PhD, I earned a BSc and MA in economics from Universidad de los Andes and worked as a predoctoral fellow at the Program for Economic Research (PER) at Columbia University. I am originally from Montería, Córdoba, Colombia.

Contact

E-mail: vcperez@bu.edu

Selected publications

Working Paper

Measuring Industrial Policy: A Text-Based Approach.

R. Juhász, N. Lane, E. Oehlsen, and V.C. Pérez

May 2025

Abs Bib PDF

Since the 18th century, policymakers have debated the merits of industrial policy (IP). Yet, economists lack basic facts about its use due to measurement challenges. We propose a new approach to IP measurement based on information contained in policy text. We show how off-the-shelf supervised machine learning tools can be used to categorize industrial policies at scale. Using this approach, we validate longstanding concerns with earlier approaches to measurement which conflate IP with other types of policy. We apply our methodology to a global database of commercial policy descriptions, and provide a first look at IP use at the country, industry, and year levels (2010-2022). The new data on IP suggest that i) IP is on the rise; ii) modern IP tends to use subsidies and export promotion measures as opposed to tariffs; iii) rich countries heavily dominate IP use; iv) IP tends to target sectors with an established comparative advantage, particularly in high-income countries.

@techreport{JLOP,
  title = {Measuring Industrial Policy: A Text-Based Approach.},
  author = {Juhász, R. and Lane, N. and Oehlsen, E. and Pérez, V.C.},
  year = {2025},
  month = may,
  url = {https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5262841},
  online_version = {https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5262841},
  coverage_show = {true},
  coverage_links = {<p><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/this-part-of-bidenomics-needs-more-economics-2cea1641"><strong>Wall Street Journal:</strong> This Part of Bidenomics Needs More Economics</a></p><p><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-07-25/global-subsidy-wars-force-us-allies-to-pay-up-for-chips-evs?in_source=embedded-checkout-banner"><strong> Bloomberg:</strong> Subsidy Wars Heat Up With US Allies Forced to Pay Up or Lose Out</a></p><p><a href="https://iap.unido.org/articles/trends-global-industrial-policy"><strong>UNIDO Insights:</strong> Trends in Global Industrial Policy</a></p><p><a href="https://www.unido.org/sites/default/files/files/2023-03/IID%20Policy%20Brief%201%20-%20Global%20Industrial%20Policy%20-%20Measurment%20and%20Results%20-%20FINAL.pdf"><strong>UNIDO Policy Brief Series:</strong> Insights on industrial development</a></p><p><a href="https://d1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net/production/uploaded-files/JPM_The_Long_term_Strate_2023-01-27_4318021-91952e6d-55c7-4f46-97ad-3cbc444609c7.pdf"><strong>JP Morgan:</strong> Global Long-term Strategy 2023</a></p><p><a href="https://steg.cepr.org/podcasts/who-what-when-and-how-industrial-policy-nathan-lane"><strong>STEG Podcast:</strong> Conversations on Transformation Series</a></p><p><a href="https://res.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/RES-Newsletter-201-Digital-edition.pdf"><strong>RES:</strong> When industry means hard work by Daron Acemoglu</a></p>}
}