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About Diego
Professor Diego Sánchez-Ancochea serves as Head of the School of Global and Area Studies and Professor of the Political Economy of Development at the University of Oxford's Department of International Development, with a joint appointment in the School of Global and Area Studies. He is also a Fellow of St Antony’s College, Associate Head for People in the Social Sciences Division, and a member of the University’s Council. Sánchez-Ancochea joined Oxford in 2008 after five years as Senior Lecturer in Economics of Latin America at the Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London. His academic background includes a PhD in Economics from the New School for Social Research in New York (2004), with a dissertation on leading coalitions and structures of accumulation in Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic under globalization; a Master’s in Public Administration and Government Policy from the Institute Ortega y Gasset (1998); a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Universidad Complutense de Madrid (1997); and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Learning and Teaching from the University of Oxford (2015). Previously, he held positions such as Director of the Latin American Centre (2015-2018), Head of the Oxford Department of International Development (appointed 2019), Co-editor of the Journal of Latin American Studies (2015-2019), Treasurer of the Latin American Studies Association (2018-2020), and serves on the editorial boards of Oxford Development Studies and the Journal of Development Studies.
Sánchez-Ancochea specializes in the political economy of Latin America, with a focus on Central America, exploring income inequality, social policy, industrial policy, state-society relations, and universal social policies in the global South. His research emphasizes how equality depends on effective policies, political coalitions, and institutions, often using qualitative comparative case studies despite his economics training. Key publications include the monograph The Costs of Inequality in Latin America: Lessons for the Rest of the World (Bloomsbury, 2020); The Quest for Universal Social Policy in the South: Actors, Ideas and Architectures (Cambridge University Press, 2016); Good Jobs and Social Services: How Costa Rica Achieved the Elusive Double Incorporation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, co-authored with Juliana Martínez Franzoni); and edited volumes such as Handbook of Central American Governance (Routledge, 2013, co-edited with Salvador Martí i Puig). Notable articles feature 'Southern Discomfort: Interrogating the Category of the Global South' (Development and Change, 2022), 'Institutional Change and Political Conflict in a Structuralist Model' (Cambridge Journal of Economics, 2021, co-authored with Jose Gabriel Porcile), and 'The COVID-19 Pandemic and Social Policy Narratives in Costa Rica' (CEPAL Review, 2023, co-authored with Juliana Martínez Franzoni). He conducts consultancies for CEPAL, ILO, UNDP, and Oxford Analytica, contributing to policy discussions on development and inequality.