Daniel Payares-Montoya is a research associate at the Public Policy Institute of California. He is a member of the PPIC Economic Policy Center, and he also contributes to the PPIC Higher Education Center. His research focuses on expanding economic opportunity through the labor market, the relation between the labor market and higher education, income inequality, climate-related jobs, and economic development. Before joining PPIC, he worked as a consultant for the World Bank, concentrating on green growth and green finance in developing countries, and as a researcher at the Center for Latin American Studies, University of California Berkeley, focusing on the socio-economic impact of globalization and industrialization in the Americas. He has also conducted research on productivity, education, and labor markets for Fedesarrollo, the Private Council on Competitiveness, and Proantioquia Foundation in Colombia. He holds a master’s degree in public policy from Universidad de Chile and a master’s degree in development practice from the University of California, Berkeley.  

Iwunze Ugo is a research fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California whose work focuses on education from preschool through grade 12 and further on into postsecondary institutions. His research interests include public school finances and governance; student outcomes—with a focus on demographic disparities; and transitions to higher education. He is a former PPIC research associate and holds a PhD in economics from the University of California, Davis, where he worked as a graduate student researcher at the California Education Lab.