Jaime Ruiz-Tagle is an Associate Professor at the School of Economics and Business.

He served as director of the Department of Economics between 2018 and 2022, and as director of the Microdata Center (Centro de Microdatos) between 2014 and 2017. During this period, he was also a member of the Salary Commission of the Ministry of Labor and of the Higher Labor Council appointed by the Ministry of Finance.

Previously, he was a researcher at the Microdata Center and an adjunct professor in the Department of Economics. In addition, he was an associate consultant for the United Nations Development Programme between 2007 and 2008, and a senior economist at the Central Bank of Chile between 2005 and 2007. He has conducted various consultancies for international organizations such as the Inter-American Development Bank and the United Nations Development Programme, as well as for public and private institutions in Chile.

His areas of specialization are impact evaluation, labor economics, social policies, poverty, income distribution, and household financial economics. His current research focuses on the labor market and the financial decisions of households and micro-entrepreneurs. He has also explored employment dynamics in Chile, workers’ employment status decisions, and their link with mental health.
Currently he is evaluating micro-entrepreneurship and financial education programs and leads the project “Mi Barrio Financiero,” which aims to facilitate access to financial education.

He holds a commercial engineering degree and a master’s degree in Economics from the Universidad de Chile, and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.