Ana Karen is a Ph.D. Fellow at UNU-MERIT since 2021. Her research focuses on the effects of inequality challenges stemming from unequal access to drinking water and the recent COVID-19 crisis on labor market outcomes in developing countries and is supervised by Dr. Micheline Goedhuys and Prof. Dr. Ir. Eleonora Nillesen. 

Before joining the Ph.D. Programme, Ana Karen worked as Economics Consultant at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) country office in Mexico, where she monitored the macroeconomic performance of Mexico and collaborated in several IDB’s regional publications (for Central America and Mexico). She has also worked as a consultant for the UNDP and FAO in Mexico. She holds a joint Master’s degree in Models and Methods of Quantitative Economics from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and Université Paris 1 Pantheón Sorbonne, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

	Selected publications by Ana Karen Diaz Mendez
UNU-MERIT Working Papers
Diaz Mendez, Ana Karen & Bruno Martorano, 2023, The gender inequality effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Nigerian labor market, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2023-034
Research reports
Garcimartin, Carlos, Jeronimo Roca & Ana Karen Diaz Mendez, 2021, Recaudación potencial del IVA a la economía digital en Centroamérica, Panamá y República Dominicana, This work estimates the potential VAT revenues that could be achieved by taxing the digital economy in the countries of Central America, Panama, and the Dominican Republic. The study uses data provided by Statista. However, it is worth noting that, in practice, applying VAT to the digital economy is a process that takes time and is not easy. For this reason, these estimates should be understood as a maximum potential tax collection once the sufficient ground has been covered, not as something that can become a reality shortly after VAT is introduced, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18235/0003330
Briefs
Carmen, Giselle, Ana Karen Diaz Mendez & Marta Ruiz Arranz, 2020, A un clic de la transición: Economía digital en Centroamérica y la República Dominicana, This report presents an overview of the digital economy in the Central American region. In particular, in the study, we describe the adoption of information and communication technologies (ICT) and the evolution of revenues and users in the digital economy in the region, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18235/0002718