Cristóbal Otero
Cristóbal Otero is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Columbia Business School, where he has been a faculty member since 2023. He earned his PhD in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to his doctoral studies, he completed an MSc in Political Philosophy at the London School of Economics and both an MA and BA in Economics at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC Chile).
Otero's research spans public economics, health economics, and organizational economics, with work published in leading journals such as the American Economic Review and Econometrica. He is also the co-editor of Impuestos Justos para el Chile que Viene: Diagnóstico y Desafíos Tributarios para un Nuevo Pacto Fiscal, published by Fondo de Cultura Económica in 2021.
Otero has been recognized with several awards and honors, including the Essen Health Conference Best Paper Award in 2024, being named one of Chile’s most influential young leaders in Diario Financiero’s "35 under 35" list in 2023, and receiving the Raúl Yver Oxley Award, given to the top Economics graduate at PUC Chile. He was also selected for the China Star Tour, which showcases the most promising young economists to researchers in China.
In addition to his academic work, Otero has served as a consultant for the Chilean National Productivity Commission and as a cabinet advisor for the Ministry of Economy in Chile. He continues to contribute to public policy as an advisor to Centro Contribuye.
Featured Research
The Economics of the Public Option: Evidence from Local Pharmaceutical Markets
We study the effects of competition by state-owned firms, leveraging the decentralized entry of public pharmacies to local markets in Chile. Public pharmacies sell the same drugs at a third of private pharmacy prices, because of stronger upstream bargaining and market power in the private sector, but are of lower quality. Public pharmacies induced market segmentation and price increases in the private sector, which benefited the switchers to the public option but harmed the stayers.