Francisco Rivera-Batiz

Francisco Rivera-Batiz joined the faculty of Columbia University for the first time in 1991 as an associate professor of economics and education at Teachers College, and as the director of the Institute for Urban and Minority Education until 1995. From 1997 to 1999, he served as the director of the Latino Studies Program at the university, and from 1996 to 2002 he was the director of the MPA in Economic Policy Management (MPA-EPM) at SIPA as well as an associate professor in the economics department. He is currently a professor emeritus of economics and education at Teachers College and an affiliate professor at SIPA, teaching in the MPA-EPM and Executive MPA programs.

He is the Chief Editor of the Encyclopedia of International Economics and Global Trade, published by World Scientific Publishers in 2020, and was associate editor of the Review of Development Economics and a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Economic Policy Reform, the Open Demography Journal, and the International Trade Journal. 

Rivera-Batiz received a BA from Cornell University in 1975 and a PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1979. He has previously held teaching or research positions at the University of Chicago, Indiana University in Bloomington, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Rutgers University in New Brunswick. He has received postdoctoral fellowships from the Ford Foundation in 1982-83 and Educational Testing Service in 1988-89. He was a visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation in 2003-04.

Over the years, Rivera-Batiz has provided technical or educational services to the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Soros Foundation, and the Harvard Institute for International Development as well as to a number of governmental and non-governmental institutions in the United States and abroad, including Argentina, China, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Egypt, Mongolia, Paraguay, Puerto Rico and Turkey. In 2006 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Friendship from the country of Mongolia in honor of his contributions to Mongolian education and society.

At SIPA, Rivera-Batiz has received the Outstanding Teaching Award in 2016 and 2010. He is also the recipient of the Lifetime Academic Achievement Award granted by the American Society of Hispanic Economists, presented at the American Economic Association Meetings in 2010.

His academic articles have been published in the American Economic Review, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Human Resources, Journal of Population Economics, Economics Letters, International Economic Review, Review of Development Economics, Review of International Economics, the Quarterly Journal of Economics and the Scandinavian Journal of Economics, among others.

Selected Publications:

• "Protectionist Myths” with Jagdish N. Bhagwati and Pravin Krishna, in C. Erbil and F. Rivera-Batiz, eds. Encyclopedia of International Economics and Global Trade, Volume 3: International Trade and Commercial Policy (World Scientific Publishers, 2020),
• “International Financial Markets and Interest Party Conditions: Where do We Stand?” in F. Rivera-Batiz, ed. Encyclopedia of International Economics and Global Trade, Volume 2: International Money and Finance (World Scientific Publishers, 2020).
• “The Job Terminator? Automation, Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work,” Journal of International Affairs (November 2018).
• International Trade, Capital Flows and Economic Development, with L. Rivera-Batiz (World Scientific Publishers, 2018).
• “Education and Attitudes towards Internal Migrants in China” with Na Feng, in F. Rivera-Batiz, ed. International and Interregional Migration: Theory and Evidence (World Scientific Publishers, 2018).
• “Quantitative Literacy,” in Bruno S. Frey, ed., the Sage Encyclopedia of Educational Research, Measurement and Evaluation (Sage Publishers, 2017).
• “Why Did Pisa Test Scores Rise in Turkey?” with Mine Durmaz, BETAM Research Brief No. 14/174 (Bahcesehir University Center for Economic Research, Istanbul, 2014).
• “A Kinder, Gentler Immigration Reform” with Jagdish N. Bhagwati, Foreign Affairs (November/December 2013).
• “The Globalization of International Labor Flows,” in A. Lukauskas, R. Stern and G. Zanini, eds., Handbook of Trade Policy for Development (Oxford University Press, 2013).
• “Trade, Poverty, Inequality and Gender,” in A. Lukauskas, R. Stern and G. Zanini, eds., Handbook of Trade Policy for Development (Oxford University Press, 2013).
• “Economic Strain, Education and Attitudes towards Foreigners in the European Union” with Ira N. Gang and Myeong-Su Yun, Review of International Economics (May 2013).
• “Changes in Attitudes towards Immigrants in Europe: Before and After the Fall of the Berlin War,” with Ira N. Gang and Myeong-Su Yun, in G. Epstein and I. Gang, eds., Migration and Culture: Frontiers of Economics and Globalization, (Emerald Group Publishing, 2010).
• Education as an Engine of Economic Development: Global Experiences and Prospects for El Salvador, Fundación Salvadoreña para el Desarrollo Económico y Social (FUSADES, 2008)
• "How Do Migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean Fare in U.S. Labor Markets?" The World Economy (2007)
• "Education and Economic Development in Puerto Rico," with H. Ladd in The Puerto Rican Economy: Prospects for Growth, edited by B. Bosworth and S. Collins (Brookings Institution 2005)
• "NewYorktitlan: The Socioeconomic Status of Mexican New Yorkers," in Regional Labor Review (Winter-Spring 2004)
• "The Impact of School-to-Work Programs on Youth Employment and Student Outcomes," in The School to Work Movement: Origins and Destinations, edited by W. Stull and N. Sanders (Praeger 2003)
• "Democracy, Governance and Economic Growth: Theory and Evidence," in Review of Development Economics (June 2002)
• Tigers in Distress: The Political Economy of the East Asian Crisis and its Aftermath, co-edited with A. Lukauskas (Edward Elgar Publishers 2001)
• "International Financial Liberalization, Corruption and Economic Growth" in Review of International Economics (November 2001)
• "Undocumented Workers in the Labor Market: An Analysis of the Earnings of Legal and Illegal Mexican Immigrants in the U.S.," in Journal of Population Economics (February 1999)
• Island Paradox: Puerto Rico in the 1990s, with C. Santiago (Russell Sage Foundation 1996)
• International Finance and Open Economy Macroeconomics, Second Edition, with L. Rivera-Batiz (Prentice Hall 1994)

and many others.

Education

• PhD in Economics, MIT
• BA, Cornell University