Luisa R. Blanco, PhD, MBA

Luisa R. Blanco, PhD, MBA, Professor of Economics, School of Public Policy, Pepperdine University, and an Adjunct Researcher, Center for Latin American Social Policy, (CLASP) RAND Corporation, received a Doctorate of Philosophy in Economics from the University of Oklahoma, and Master of Business Administration from Midwestern State University, Wichita Falls, TX. Dr. Blanco is also a Research Fellow at Harris Manchester College at Oxford University. Dr. Blanco, a bilingual (Spanish-English) researcher, is interested issues that pertain to the wellbeing of Latin Americans at home and abroad, such as institutions, democracy, political instability, crime, capital accumulation, capital flows, financial development, access to finance, inequality, and natural resources.

Cohort

2012-13 & 2016-17

Projects

• “Financial planning for retirement and health among Hispanics.” In this project, Dr. Blanco plans to evaluate how an educational program that promotes retirement saving can result better retirement planning and health outcomes, among Hispanics who face significant barriers to retirement planning.
• “Financial exclusion and the wellbeing of minority elders in the United States.” Dr. Blanco’s RCMAR/CHIME- and UCLA CTSI-funded project sought to determine what factors explain financial exclusion, i.e. non-participation in the formal financial sector, among older Latino and African Americans in the United States and to assess the impact of financial exclusion on their wellbeing, with a focus on health outcomes. Dr. Blanco used data from focus group sessions she conducted in the Los Angeles area, data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) with the intent to evaluate some of the explanatory factors of financial exclusion that include gender, education, poverty incidence, participation on social security programs and place of birth.