Juan F. Vargas is Professor of Economics at Universidad del Rosario, where he was appointed Distinguished Professor in 2014. He holds a PhD in Economics from Royal Holloway University of London and has held visiting positions at NYU, UCLA, and Harvard among other institutions. His main interests lie in the areas of political economy and development, focusing particularly on the causes and consequences of violent armed conflict, the economics of crime and the interplay between political and economic, formal and informal institutions in the process of state-building. In 2018, Juan obtained the "Juan Luis Londoño Prize", awarded to the best Colombian economist under 40.