Brigitte Castañeda Rodríguez
Economist and Petroleum Engineer
Welcome!
I am a Postdoctoral Assistant and Professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering at Universidad de los Andes. I have a background in engineering and economics. My research combines economic strategies with applied tools from optimization and enginering. My work bridges the gap between economic findings and specific policy solutions. I combine causal inference, and stochastic modeling to evaluate climate policies, like carbon pricing, fiscal transfers, and the energy transition—especially in Latin America.
Research interests: Energy, Carbon Pricing Policy, Energy Transition, and Decision Theory
Languages: Spanish (Native), English (Fluent), Russian (Fluent), French (Basic)
Teaching: Finance and Desicion Theory under uncertainty.
Current Research & Working Papers:
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Local Shocks, Limited Fiscal Response: Natural Disasters and Municipal Public Finances in Colombia (with Oscar Becerra, David Perez-Reyna and Angel Avila) [Link]
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Climate Policy and Structural Change: Evidence from Energy Transitions in Latin America (with Hernando Zuleta) [Link]
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Spreading Jam Across the National Toast: Royalties and Local Fiscal Capacities (with Andrés Álvarez and Marc Hofstetter)
[PDF] -
Reforming Fossil Fuel Subsidies with Citizens’ Approval: The Case of Colombia (Funded by EfD)
[Link]
APPs: SynthIE, a new multi-agent tool designed to optimize the publication process in Industrial Engineering journals: [Link]
Policy Impact & Applied Experience: I strongly believe in translating academic research into actionable engineering and public policy. I am also an active member of the EfD Network through REES Colombia and the RESET Network.
Last updated: Oct 2026
News
| Sep 1, 2025 | Research Grant – Received an IDB grant for Fiscal Tools to Manage Climate-Induced Disaster Risk. |
| Sep 16, 2024 | Graduate of the Research Mentoring Programme (PMI) on Article 6 of the SPAR6C program with GGGI. |
| Apr 12, 2024 | Winner of the award for the best article of the Doctoral Workshop 2024 Faculty of Economics, Universidad de los Andes. |
| Nov 1, 2023 | With MCC and Uniandes, we received funding from EfD to conduct surveys in Colombia on fossil fuel subsidy reform and acceptability. |
| Jun 12, 2023 | Contractor, Doctoral, Temp on Inclusive-Just Transition at EDF. |
| Jan 10, 2023 | Worked for the World Bank as Short Term Consultant in Data Scientist. |
| Aug 10, 2020 | Degree with honors in the “Data Science for All” course, by the Colombian Ministry of Technology. |
| Aug 1, 2020 | Started PhD in economics at Univeristy of the Andes in Bogota, Colombia. |
| Nov 21, 2019 | First place in Paper Contest and second in the Poster Session at Oil and Gas Horizons Congress XI. |