Maria Micaela Sviatschi is Assistant Professor in Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University. Her research focuses on development economics with a focus on human capital, labor, political economy and crime. She is particularly interested in how conditions during childhood and adolescence, such as exposure to illegal labor markets and gangs, affect individuals’ long-term outcomes such as participation in illegal industries, engaging in violence against the state and state legitimacy. In addition, she studies how criminal organizations affect household’s behavior and state presence in the areas they control. Another strand of her research studies the role of state capacity to deter and improve service-delivery to reduce gender-based violence. In particular, she has collaborative work studying the effects of women police officers in Peru and police street patrolling in India. She has also conducted policy evaluations for the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank.