Jesica Torres
Senior Economist
Office of the Chief Economist for the Middle East and North Africa
The World Bank
Research
Publications
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women-led businesses
With: Franklin Maduko, Isis Gaddis, Leonardo Iacovone, and Kathleen Beegle
The World Bank Research Observer, Volume 38, Issue 1, February 2023, Pages 36–72
Policies to support businesses through the COVID-19 shock: a firm-level perspective
With: Xavier Cirera, Marcio Cruz, Elwyn Davies, Arti Grover, Leonardo Iacovone, Jose Ernesto Lopez Cordova, Denis Medvedev, Franklin Okechukwu Maduko, Gaurav Nayyar, and Santiago Reyes Ortega
The World Bank Research Observer, Volume 36, Issue 1, February 2021, Pages 41–66
Size-dependent policies, talent misallocation, and the return to skill
With: Joaquín López
Review of Economic Dynamics, Vol. 38, October 2020, Pages 59-93
Working Papers
Informality and the life cycle of plants
With: Furkan Sarıkaya and M. Nazım Tamkoç
The pecuniary and non-pecuniary returns to micro-entrepreneurship
Evidence from a cross-section of women in Mexico
With: Benjamin Williams and David C. Francis
Optimal public sector premium, talent misallocation, and aggregate productivity
Evidence from the Middle East and North Africa
With: Francisco Parro
How large are the economic dividends from closing gender employment gaps in the Middle East and North Africa?
With: Federico Fiuratti and Steven Pennings
Business uncertainty in developing and emerging economies
With: Edgar Avalos, Jose Maria Barrero, Elwyn Davies, and Leonardo Iacovone
Technology and resilience
With: Xavier Cirera, Diego Comin, Marcio Cruz, and Kyungmin Lee
Unmasking the impact of COVID-19 on businesses: firm-level evidence from across the world
With: Marie Christine Apedo-Amah, Besart Avdiu, Xavier Cirera, Marcio Cruz, Elwyn Davies, Arti Grover, Leonardo Iacovone, Umut Kilinc, Denis Medvedev, Franklin Okechukwu Maduko, Stavros Poupakis, and Trang Thu Tran
Labor regulations and resource misallocation in Mexico
With: Matías Busso y Santiago Levy
Special tax regimes in Latin America and the Caribbean
Compliance, social protection, and resource misallocation
With: Oliver Azuara, Rodrigo Azuero, and Mariano Bosch
Policy Reports
Growth in the Middle East and North Africa
With: Roberta Gatti, Nelly Elmallakh, Gianluca Mele, Diego Faures, Menna Mousa, and Ilias Suvanov
Balancing act: jobs and wages in the Middle East and North Africa when crises hit
With: Roberta Gatti, Daniel Lederman, Nelly Elmallakh, Joana Silva, Rana Lotfi, and Ilias Suvanov
Mexico entrepreneurship ecosystem diagnostic
With: Esperanza Lasagabaster, Ernesto Lopez-Córdova, Eduardo Piedra Gonzalez, Horman Millán, and Martha Peña Ceniceros
Firms through the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from sub-Saharan Africa
With: Elwyn Davies, Gaurav Nayyar, and Santiago Reyes
in Shaping Africa’s post-COVID recovery, edited by Rabah Arezki, Simeon Djankov, and Ugo Panizza; CEPR and FMG, 2021
The case of Philippines in «Crisis and Recovery: Learning from COVID-19’s Economic Impacts and Policy Responses in East Asia»
With: Edgar Avalos, Irene Jo Estigoy Arzadon, Jaime Frias, Karl Robert Lasmarias Jandoc, and Trang Thu Tran
edited by Alvaro Gonzalez, Lydia Kim, and Maria Ana Lugo
In the developing world, COVID-19 was a job destruction shock
With: Jose Maria Barrero, Francesca de Nicola, Jonathan Timmis, and Trang Tran