I am an Assistant Professor of Economics at the Yale School of Management.
I am also an Associate Editor at the Journal of International Economics and a Faculty Research Fellow at the NBER.
My research focuses on international trade and macro development. I received my Ph.D. in Economics from UCLA.
Media coverage: La Nación, New York Times, Financial Times, Bloomberg, Fortune, National Public Radio, Cointelegraph, Christian Science Monitor, Forbes, BBC, CNBC, Marginal Revolution, Frankfurter Allgemeine, UCLA's Research Spotlight, Cato Institute, VoxDev, Yale Insights
Research Papers
Multinationals, Monopsony, and Local Development: Evidence from the United Fruit Company with Esteban Méndez
Econometrica, 2022
Online Appendix. Supplementary Online Appendix. 7-minute video by Econimate. Podcast by Trade Talks.
Are Cryptocurrencies Currencies? Bitcoin as Legal Tender in El Salvador with Fernando Alvarez and David Argente
Science, research article, 2023
Voting on a Trade Agreement: Firm Networks and Attitudes Towards Openness with Esteban Méndez
Review of Economic Studies, lead article, 2025
Strategic Complementarities in a Dynamic Model of Technology Adoption: P2P Digital Payments
with Fernando Alvarez, David Argente, Francesco Lippi, and Esteban Méndez
American Economic Review, conditionally accepted
Cross-Border Product Adoption: Individual Imports, Migrant Networks, and Domestic Retailers
with David Argente and Esteban Méndez
Quarterly Journal of Economics, revise and resubmit (2nd round)
with Lee Ohanian, Paulina Restrepo-Echavarría, and Mark Wright
International Economic Review, revise and resubmit
Payment-Chain Crises with Saki Bigio and Esteban Méndez
Other Work
The Dismantling of Capital Controls After Bretton Woods and Latin American Productivity
AEA, Papers and Proceedings, 2022
Global Firms and Local Development with Esteban Méndez
Book Chapter, in “Roots of Underdevelopment: A New Economic (and Political) History of Latin America and the Caribbean." Palgrave, Macmillan. 2022
Drivers of Digital Payment Adoption: Lessons from Brazil, Costa Rica, and Mexico
with David Argente, Paula Gonzalez Alvarez, and Esteban Méndez
IMF Economic Review, in preparation for conference issue “From Micro to Macro: Leveraging Microdata to Address Macroeconomic Issues”
Work in Progress
De Minimis as a Constraint on Local Retail Market Power with David Argente and Esteban Méndez
Detour Ahead: Market Frictions and Path Dependence in Transport Networks with Marta Santamaría
The Legacy of Banana Culture: How Multinational Exposure Reshapes Local Identity with Esteban Méndez
On the Resilience of Payment Methods with Fernando Alvarez and David Argente
Personalized Recommendations and Product Innovation with David Argente, Maria Trejos and Kai Hao Yang
Contact
Email: diana.vanpatten@yale.edu
Mailing Address:
Diana Van Patten
Yale School of Management
Evans Hall
165 Whitney Avenue
New Haven, CT 06511