Juan E. Saavedra is an Economist at the University of Southern California’s Center for Economics and Social Research and a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Dr. Saavedra’s work spans various domains of education policy analysis. He has published on topics that include school vouchers, conditional cash transfers for education, the impacts of resources on educational attainment, collegiate value-added, teacher labor markets, vocational education, national reviews of educational policy and educational cost-effectiveness analysis. As a principal or co-principal investigator, he has led projects in Mexico, Peru and Colombia sponsored by the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and the MIT Jameel Poverty Action Lab, among others. In 2014 Dr. Saavedra published a book that became the education sector’s reform platform of Colombia’s outgoing president and the blueprint for a recent reform of national teacher evaluation policy. Dr. Saavedra is currently PI of a large-scale RCT helping high school seniors overcome informational and behavioral obstacles in their transition to college. In 2015, Dr. Saavedra and his co-authors were awarded the Juan Luis Londoño Prize for the best paper presented at the Latin-American Economic Association Annual Conference, for work examining the long-term benefits and costs of a large-scale private school scholarship program in Colombia. Dr. Saavedra currently serves as Expert Advisor to the OECD’s Directorate for Education and Skills.
Sponsored projects include research, training, convening, and other initiatives externally funded through grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements. Funding sources can include the US federal government, state and local agencies, private foundations, corporations, and foreign entities (public and private).
The below list includes all sponsored projects in progress or completed within the current and past 2 calendar years, administered at the Harvard Kennedy School under the direction of the named faculty member as Principal Investigator. Please note that this list includes only those activities supported by external sponsored funding; other sources of support are not included (e.g., philanthropy, HKS or Harvard internal resources).
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Outside Professional Activities For Juan Saavedra
| Organization | Relationship |
|---|---|
| University of Chicago | Consulting |
| US Agency for International Development | Membership on a scientific or other advisory board |