Duke Economics is excited to introduce Quitzé Valenzuela-Stookey as a postdoctoral associate for the 2021–2022 academic year.
Born in Nicaragua, Valenzuela-Stookey spent his early life in Massachusetts. As an undergraduate at Columbia University, he began to show an interest in economics and was originally interested in working at a multinational institution like the World Bank or International Monetary Fund. But a research assistantship with Columbia professor Joseph Stiglitz solidified his interest in economic theory.
“Professor Stiglitz is very inspiring and showed me how theoretical economics could potentially be useful for solving real-world problems,” said Valenzuela-Stookey. “So that's what set up my interest in theory, and I drifted away from more applied work.”
Valenzuela-Stookey earned his Ph.D. at Northwestern, where he continued to dive into those theoretical questions. His job market paper, “Market-Based Mechanisms,” looks at how markets can impact policy.
“Policymakers often do try to look at markets to inform their decisions,” said Valenzuela-Stookey. “For example, the Federal Reserve will look at a bond prices when deciding on how to conduct monetary policy, because these prices are supposed to reveal some information about the underlying state of the economy.”
Now, Valenzuela-Stookey hopes to shed light on emissions regulations and the ways that cap-and-trade policies are influenced by the market. He is also looking forward to a productive year at Duke.
“I was attracted to Duke because of the great group of theorists and working with people who study a wide range within the discipline,” he said. “Ideally I would like to just do good research and make sure I’m making connections with future collaborators.
“I'd ultimately like to contribute to the theoretical literature, and getting new ideas and collaborations with faculty would be the best outcome.”
Economics Department
