Jorge D. Ballestero | Economist · Analyst

About

I study the gap between how we assume people act and how they actually do.

My work sits at the intersection of economics, behavioral science, and strategy. I'm drawn to hard problems — the kind where the first model is wrong, the data is messy, and the answer actually matters. I care about understanding why outcomes happen, not just describing them.

I'm completing a dual degree at Columbia University and Sciences Po Paris in Economics and Political Philosophy, with a special concentration in Business Management at Columbia Business School — training that spans econometrics, experimental design, corporate finance, and strategic analysis across three countries and two intellectual traditions.

Currently: synthesizing climate macroeconomics for policymakers under Jeffrey Sachs, building cost-of-equity estimation pipelines from large-scale financial data, and teaching intermediate macroeconomics to 200 students at Columbia.

The throughline across all three is the same — rigorous analysis applied to decisions that have real consequences.

Behavioral Economics Quantitative Analysis Experimental Design Strategy & Advisory Decision Science Applied Econometrics

Research

Applied Analysis

Behavioral Economics · Columbia

Anchoring in Context: Sequential Evaluation & Decision Quality

Formal model of dynamic anchoring in sequential evaluations — examining how early information creates systematic bias in high-stakes screening decisions. Direct implications for hiring, investment committee design, and any multi-stage evaluation process.

Decision Theory Experimental Design Choice Architecture Theoretical Modeling

Field Research · Columbia Economics

Market Unraveling in Climate Insurance

Designed and programmed three oTree experiments investigating insurance market failure under climate uncertainty. Built stochastic simulations calibrated to historical rainfall data for field research with Colombian smallholder farmers — linking behavioral lab methods to real policy design.

oTree · Python Field Experiment Climate Economics Policy Design

IPOs, Information Environment & Cost of Capital

Constructing firm-level cost of equity measures using Compustat, CRSP, and IBES. Implementing valuation-based and numerical estimation techniques from academic finance literature in reproducible R and Python pipelines.

Columbia · Supervisor: A. Bhutani 2026 – Present

AI Misinformation & Civic Trust

Assessed institutional risks from AI-generated misinformation; produced policy recommendations on cross-platform governance and safeguards against information fragility for non-technical policymakers.

Sciences Po Paris 2023–24

Experience

Where I've Worked

Feb 2026 – Present

Research Assistant — Macroeconomics for Climate Resilience

Columbia University · Jeffrey Sachs

Synthesizing macroeconomic literature and climate policy frameworks for a textbook targeting government officials in Small Island Developing States. Preparing empirical figures and analysis using R, Excel, and LaTeX; fact-checking quantitative content for non-specialist readers navigating complex policy trade-offs.

Jan 2026 – Present

Research Assistant — IPOs, Information & Cost of Capital

Columbia University · Ankit Bhutani

Building firm-level cost of equity measures from Compustat, CRSP, and IBES — implementing valuation-based estimation techniques from academic finance literature. Cleaning and validating large panel datasets; translating mathematical models into efficient, reproducible R and Python pipelines.

Jan 2026 – Present

Teaching Assistant — Intermediate Macroeconomics

Columbia University Economics Department

Selected TA for a 200-student core course. Leading weekly recitations and office hours; translating formal dynamic models into intuitive economic reasoning. Designing answer keys and rubrics to standardize evaluation while maintaining analytical rigor.

Jul – Sep 2025

Strategy Advisor to the Ambassador

Permanent Mission of Costa Rica to the United Nations, New York

Direct advisor to Ambassador Maritza Chan across ECOSOC sessions and UN committee proceedings. Synthesized negotiation dynamics across 15+ delegations into strategic briefs; identified coalition opportunities and recommended pathways in high-stakes diplomatic contexts. Drafted official statements delivered at the UN General Assembly on disarmament, sustainability, and humanitarian policy.

Feb – Oct 2025

Research Assistant — Decision-Making Under Uncertainty

Columbia University · Ricardo Pommer Muñoz

Designed incentive-compatible oTree experiments examining how information framing and payoff structures shape contract evaluation. Built stochastic simulations calibrated to historical rainfall data; developed R pipelines for data validation, diagnostics, and econometric preparation.

Projects

Built & Shipped

Full-Stack Application · 2025

UniSearch

Global University Discovery Platform

Full-stack application helping students discover and compare 1,500+ universities worldwide. Implements dynamic search, preference-based ranking algorithms, and personalized filtering — deployed on Vercel and Render with iterative improvements based on real user behavior.

React / Vite FastAPI SQLite Tailwind Deployed

Decision Tool · 2025

FinSelf Coach

Behavioral Finance Assistant

GPT-powered tool identifying investor cognitive biases and generating context-dependent strategy nudges. Models salience and reference effects to improve decision quality under uncertainty.

GPT API Behavioral Finance Conversational UI

Education

Academic Formation

Columbia University

BA, Economics — GPA: 4.03/4.00

New York · 2022 – 2026

GS Honors Society · Dean's List · Ilse S. Mintz Scholarship

Econometrics Behavioral Economics Game Theory Research Seminar Linear Algebra Statistics

Special Concentration · Columbia Business School

Business Management

45 students admitted · Corporate Finance (A+) · Strategy Formulation · Marketing Management

Sciences Po Paris

BA, Political Philosophy — Cum Laude

Reims, France · 2022 – 2026

Dual Degree

Highly selective joint degree with Columbia University,

Cum Laude (top 10%)

Political Economy Research Methods Quantitative Sociology AI & Governance European Institutions

Capabilities

Technical Skills

Analytics & Programming

Python R SQL Stata Excel oTree Git LaTeX

Research Methods

Experimental Design Econometrics Causal Inference Predictive Modeling Policy Analysis Data Visualization

Web & Deployment

React FastAPI HTML / CSS / JS Tailwind Vercel Render

Languages

English Native Spanish Native French Native Portuguese Fluent Russian German Italian

Writing

Research Notes

A line of thinking worth writing down. Sometimes an R session, sometimes a model, sometimes just a question I can't stop turning over. On behavioral economics, markets, and how decisions actually get made.

Coming Soon

Why Your Hiring Process Is Biased by Design

On anchoring effects in sequential evaluation — and what behavioral science says about building fairer, more accurate screening systems.

Behavioral Economics

Coming Soon

Thinking in Three Languages

How switching languages reshapes the way I frame risk, morality, and strategy — and what the research actually says about it.

Language & Cognition

In Progress

LatAm Markets: A Forecasting Exercise

Working through macroeconomic signals, political risk, and capital flow dynamics across Latin America using R. What the models say, and where I disagree with them.

Macro · Markets

Contact

Let's connect.

Open to research, analyst, and strategy roles — particularly at the intersection of applied decision-making, data, and strategy. Always glad to talk about interesting problems.