Javier is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Political Science Department at Stanford University and a member of the Stanford Civics Initiative. He is a lecturer and a Postdoctoral Associate in Economics at New York University--Abu Dhabi, and a Visiting Scholar at the University of Bordeaux. He received a Ph.D. in Economics from Los Andes University focusing on the intersection between social networks and economic history. Geographical areas of specialty are Latin America and the Middle East and he regularly contributes to different news outlets. Currently, Javier is a Forbes Magazine op-ed columnist and one of the hosts of the New Books in Economic and Business History podcast.