Rodrigo Sánchez Sienra

rodrigo.sanchez@unil.ch

Fribourg, Switzerland

Welcome! I’m a PhD candidate at the Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration (IDHEAP), University of Lausanne.

My research focuses on immigration and integration. I use causal inference methods to study how migrants and refugees integrate into host societies — from cash-based interventions for Venezuelan immigrants in Peru to the effects of refugee status on social and economic outcomes in Greece. I’m also interested in education policy, particularly how tracking systems shape public opinion and inequality.

Before my PhD, I spent two years as a Pre-Doctoral Fellow at the Immigration Policy Lab at ETH Zürich (2021–2023). I hold an MA in Economics from Central European University (2020) and a BA in Economics from Kansas State University (2018).

Selected Publications

Who deserves student finance? Results from a survey experiment in six advanced capitalist economies

with Eloisa Harris, Alyssa M. Taylor, Flavia Fossati, Juliana Chueri, Mia Katharina Gandenberger and Carlo M. Knotz

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 2025

Summary

Using survey experiments in six countries, we find that immigrant students are judged as less deserving of financial aid than natives. High-achieving immigrants can overcome this penalty, but working harder does not help. The immigrant penalty is driven by right-wing voters, while left-leaning respondents treat immigrants equally.
Cash-Based Interventions Improve Multidimensional Integration Outcomes of Venezuelan Immigrants

with Achim Ahrens, Marine Casalis and Dominik Hangartner

World Development, 2024

Summary

Evaluating a cash transfer ( $190) to vulnerable Venezuelan immigrants in Peru, we find that the intervention improves overall integration by 0.12–0.28 standard deviations, driven by gains in economic, social, and navigational dimensions. The cash transfer also boosts self-employment by 2–5 percentage points, with self-employed beneficiaries achieving higher income gains than wage workers. Effects diminish sharply with household size, highlighting the need for household-adjusted payments.