# Spotlight: Andrés Barrios Fernández on Education, Inequality, and the Power of Academic Exchange January 28, 2026 ![Andres Barrios](/sites/g/files/omnuum12451/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/2026-01/Andres.jpg?itok=0yaHlJSW) When **Andrés Barrios Fernández** arrived in Cambridge as the Fall 2025 Luksic Visiting Scholar at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, he was seeking more than uninterrupted research time. He was looking for intellectual friction, the kind that emerges when scholars rethink familiar questions in unfamiliar settings. “Changing the environment where you work and connecting with new people really forces you to think differently about your research,” Andrés explained. “It gives you new ideas and new perspectives.” An Assistant Professor and Director of the Human Development Lab at the Universidad de los Andes, Andrés specializes in labor and public economics, with a primary focus on the economics of education. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the London School of Economics and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the MIT Department of Economics in 2022. His research, published in leading journals such as *The Quarterly Journal of Economics*, *The American Economic Review*, and the *Journal of Labor Economics*, aims to better understand and address inequality in educational attainment and access to opportunity. Harvard, he noted, offered a uniquely fertile setting for that work. “The academic community here is extremely attractive,” he said. “There’s an incredible concentration of people thinking seriously about related questions, but from very different angles.” During his months at DRCLAS, Andrés reconnected with longtime collaborators while also forming new relationships across Harvard and the broader Cambridge academic community. Those connections, he emphasized, are among the most valuable outcomes of the Visiting Scholar experience. “One of the big wins of an opportunity like this isn’t just the connections you make while you’re here,” he said. “It’s thinking about projects that can grow over time.” Several collaborations initiated during his fellowship are already extending back to Chile, including conversations with researchers affiliated with Harvard Kennedy School that may evolve into joint projects with the Human Development Lab. Andrés also anticipates inviting scholars he met in Cambridge to participate in annual academic workshops he organizes in Chile. “When you step back and talk to people working in different educational systems or political contexts, you start seeing common questions in a new way,” he added. “That comparative perspective is incredibly valuable.” While at DRCLAS, Andrés advanced three major research projects, each addressing questions with relevance well beyond Chile. One project examines how exposure to immigrant students affects educational trajectories and school communities. In a global context marked by increasing migration and growing political backlash against it, the findings challenge widely held assumptions. “What we find is that exposure to immigrant students actually improves educational trajectories,” Andrés explained. “Immigrants often enter more disadvantaged schools, and that can generate social dynamics that motivate native students to work harder and learn from those experiences.” A second project focuses on barriers faced by high-achieving students from disadvantaged backgrounds as they transition from high school to higher education. Partnering with a Chilean foundation, Andrés and his collaborators evaluated a low-cost intervention combining practical information about college applications and financial aid with a short counseling program aimed at building confidence and follow-through. “The results were dramatic,” he said. “We increased access to higher education by eight percentage points over a baseline of 50 percent. With relatively little support, you can really change life trajectories.” The third project explores how elite universities shape political leadership in Chile. Although students from high socioeconomic backgrounds remain overrepresented in political elites, Andrés’s research shows that elite institutions can also serve as gateways for middle-class students into positions of influence. “People sometimes ask why we should care about the elite,” he noted. “But political elites shape the institutions that affect how education works, how democracy functions, and how public policy is made.” Understanding how access to elite universities influences leadership pathways, he argues, can help inform admissions policies and efforts to diversify political representation. #### **A Transformative Academic Experience** Reflecting on his time as a Visiting Scholar, Andrés repeatedly returned to the importance of intellectual community. Over four months, he delivered talks at universities across the United States, engaged in sustained dialogue with scholars working on adjacent questions, and developed new research ideas that emerged directly from those exchanges. “One of the papers I’m working on now, on the optimal design of affirmative action, started after a visit to Columbia during this fellowship,” he said. “Those kinds of ideas come from being in conversation with people.” Andrés also emphasized the critical role of philanthropic support in making these exchanges possible. Differences in cost of living and academic salaries between the United States and Latin America make extended research stays difficult without external funding. “Without the involvement of foundations, like the Luksic Foundation in my case, it would be very difficult to make opportunities like this possible,” he said. “The research environment here is unique, and being based in the U.S., even for a few months, makes collaboration exponentially easier.” The benefits, he added, extend far beyond the individual scholar. “This experience doesn’t just benefit me. It creates spillovers for colleagues, students, and the broader research environment back home.” Despite its apparent length, Andrés noted that a visiting semester passes quickly. His advice to future scholars is to begin planning well in advance. “It goes extremely fast,” he said. “Start networking before you arrive. Reach out to people, research centers, and institutions early, that preparation really helps you make the most of the experience.” Share on:- [ Facebook ](#) - [ Twitter ](#) - [ Linkedin ](#)