Nicolas Bottan

About

Nicolas Bottan is an applied micro-economist who uses behavioral insights to study important policy questions. His research interests include public economics, behavioral economics, and development economics. He employs various empirical strategies, such as field experiments and natural or policy experiments, to investigate his research questions. Currently, his work focuses on understanding the role of social comparisons and how they influence individual behavior, including location decisions, effort, and performance in contexts like sports and education. Additionally, Nicolas explores the social consequences of public policies, such as the impact of legalized gambling on crime, and examines the interactions between government and nonprofit service provision.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Medicine
• Business
• Geography
• Economic growth
• Economics
• Environmental health
• Demographic economics
• Development economics
• Finance

Selected publications

• The unequal impact of the coronavirus pandemic: Evidence from seventeen developing countries

  PLoS ONE · 2020 · 152 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  The current coronavirus pandemic is an unprecedented public health challenge that is having a devastating economic impact on households. Using a sample of 230,540 respondents to an online survey from 17 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, the study shows that the economic impacts are large and unequal: 45 percent of respondents report that a household member has lost their job and, among households owning small businesses, 59 percent of respondents report that a household member has cl…

  DOI

• Stepping up during a crisis: The unintended effects of a noncontributory pension program during the Covid-19 pandemic

  Journal of Development Economics · 2021 · 59 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  We use a regression discontinuity design to study the impacts of a noncontributory pension program covering one-third of Bolivian households during the COVID-19 pandemic. Becoming eligible for the program during the crisis increased the probability that households had a week's worth of food stocked by 25% and decreased the probability of going hungry by 40%. Although the program was not designed to provide emergency assistance, it provided unintended positive impacts during the crisis. The progr…

  DOI

• Integrating learning platforms within regular school time: experimental evidence from Chilean primary schools

  Economics of Education Review · 2025-04-04 · 6 citations

  articleCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Betting on the House: Subjective Expectations and Market Choices

  American Economic Journal Applied Economics · 2024-12-31 · 5 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Home price expectations play a central role in macroeconomics and finance. However, there is little direct evidence on their effect on market choices. We provide causal evidence using a large-scale, high-stakes field experiment in the United States. We sent letters about home price trends to 57,910 homeowners who listed their homes. These letters contained randomized information creating nondeceptive, exogenous variation in home price expectations. Consistent with economic theory, higher expecta…

  PublisherDOI

• Feeling Rich or Looking Rich? Quantifying Self-Image and Social-Image Motives

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Ricardo Pérez-Truglia

  51 shared

• Bridget Hoffmann

  Inter-American Development Bank

  45 shared

• Diego Vera‐Cossio

  Inter-American Development Bank

  31 shared

• Paulo Bastos

  17 shared

• Julián Cristia

  14 shared

• Diether Beuermann

  Inter-American Development Bank

  14 shared

• Andrés Ham

  7 shared

• Leonardo Bonilla‐Mejía

  5 shared

Education

• PhD, Economics

  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  2018

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