This paper examines the effects of Peru's 1969 Land Reform on the political representation of marginalized ethnic groups in local elections. Using electoral data from 1963 to 1983, I employ surname analysis and a skin color detection algorithm to identify ethnic groups. Using a diff-in-diff framework, I show that greater exposure to land reform increases the candidacy of marginalized ethnic groups, but has no effect on their electoral success. I explore potential channels and find the creation of political parties of peasant origin could be plausible mechanisms for the presence of more candidates from marginalized ethnic groups.

Despite decades of intervention, artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) remains trapped in cycles of informality and environmental degradation. Drawing on large-scale primary data from miners in the Peruvian Amazon, we investigate why transitions to cleaner business models remain elusive. Our findings reveal that adoption is blocked by a complex intersection of financial, institutional, and belief-based constraints.

Using geospatial data on the Baguazo — a conflict between the Peruvian state and indigenous communities over extractivism vs. conservation — and a differences-in-differences approach, we show that communities exposed to the conflict are significantly more likely to cast protest votes in subsequent local elections.

Why do top-down mining reforms often fail? This study shifts the focus to the "inner dimensions" of leadership within mining collectives in the Peruvian Amazon. Through qualitative interviews, we identify how leaders leverage values like trust and collective well-being to drive environmental improvements and build context-sensitive institutions. We move beyond traditional policy analysis to show that the key to sustainable mining lies in the intersection of individual leadership, ethical values, and participatory governance.

Ethnicity is a multidimensional construct spanning racial, social, and cultural characteristics. Using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) on Peruvian household survey data (2007–2017), this paper develops a new index to measure ethnic intensity. Our findings reveal a strong correlation between high ethnic intensity and systemic inequality: individuals with higher index scores are significantly more likely to live in poverty, face illiteracy, have lower educational attainment, and work in self-employed roles.