Luciana Luz

Luciana Luz holds a Ph.D. in Demography from Arizona State University and is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Brazil. As a prominent demographer, Dr. Luz focuses on a broad set of population issues, including fertility and mortality in Latin America and Mozambique. She is recognized for her methodological contributions, particularly in linking death registry data to sample surveys. Dr. Luz is also noted for her work on education and inequality and has published extensively in top journals using new data sources from countries such as Guatemala, Chile, Brazil, and Mozambique.

Her recent research explores gender, time allocation, and labor market outcomes for women as well as income inequality and family structure in Guatemala. Her studies also address gender inequalities in Colombia, fertility behavior in Brazil and Mozambique, and the educational gradient on adult mortality in Chile. Additionally, she examines how health and early childhood conditions impact children's educational outcomes in Brazil.

Beyond academia, Dr. Luz collaborates with the United Nations, providing support for data quality assessments and demographic training in Latin America and Africa. She has worked with several public sector entities and NGOs, including the Brazilian Ministries of Health and Education, Fundação Itaú Social, PAHO/UN, and UNFPA/UN, integrating demographic perspectives into public policy.