I am an Assistant Professor of Economics at the Yale School of Management.
My work is centered on international trade. I also study macro-development questions related to the adoption of payment technologies in developing economies.
I am an Associate Editor at the Journal of International Economics and a Faculty Research Fellow at the NBER. 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
Published and Accepted Papers
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International Trade
Cross-Border Product Diffusion: Migrant Networks, Consumer Imports, and Retailer Learning
with David Argente and Esteban Méndez
Quarterly Journal of Economics, accepted
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Voting on a Trade Agreement: Firm Networks and Attitudes Towards Openness
Review of Economic Studies, lead article, 2025
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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. ​​
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Macro-Development
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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
NBER Working Paper No. 31280​
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Drivers of Digital Payment Adoption: Lessons from Brazil, Costa Rica, and Mexico
with David Argente, Paula Gonzalez Alvarez, and Esteban Méndez
IMF Economic Review, conditionally accepted
Conference issue “From Micro to Macro: Leveraging Microdata to Address Macroeconomic Issues”
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Are Cryptocurrencies Currencies? Bitcoin as Legal Tender in El Salvador
with Fernando Alvarez and David Argente
Science, research article, 2023
NBER Working Paper No. 29968​​​​
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Working Papers​​​
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Payment-Chain Crises with Saki Bigio and Esteban Méndez
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On the Resilience of Payment Methods with Fernando Alvarez and David Argente
NBER Working Paper No. 35115​​
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Data Centers and Local Economies: A Shift-Share Approach with Fernando Alvarez and David Argente
NBER Working Paper No. 35213​​​
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with Lee Ohanian, Paulina Restrepo-Echavarría, and Mark Wright
International Economic Review, revise and resubmit
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Work in Progress
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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
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The Legacy of Banana Culture: How Multinational Exposure Reshapes Local Identity with Esteban Méndez​​
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Personalized Recommendations and Product Innovation with David Argente, Maria Trejos and Kai Hao Yang
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Other Work
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The Dismantling of Capital Controls After Bretton Woods and Latin American Productivity
AEA, Papers and Proceedings, 2022
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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
Contact
Email: diana.vanpatten@yale.edu
Mailing Address:
Diana Van Patten
Yale School of Management
Evans Hall
165 Whitney Avenue
New Haven, CT 06511​