Cardenas, Helena

Helena Cárdenas is a research affiliate at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She holds a Ph.D. from the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, with a specialization in Economic Development. 

She received her M.Sc degree in Environmental and Natural Resources Economics from the University of Concepción, Chile, and her M.A. in International Economics at Brandeis University in Massachusetts, United States. Her research interests are on economics policy for natural resources management, environmental conservation, and distributional impacts. 

Helena's work has mostly focused on water and energy demand and welfare effects estimation underpricing and non-pricing policies. Currently, her research case studies are in urban residential sectors in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and San José, Costa Rica. Previous projects have looked at topics on biofuels in Latin America, interfuel substitution in manufacturing sectors in Chile, and agro-industries sustainable development in Ecuador. She applies techniques of choice behavior analysis, revealed and stated preferences, market and non-market valuations, and econometrics modeling.