Skip to main content

Why I Built This Site (and What's Inside)

· 3 min read
Matías Iglesias
Data Scientist, Economist

Hi, I’m Matías Iglesias—a data scientist and economist who’s passionate about understanding how the small effects of individual firms are accounted in the big picture of our economy. As a researcher in Economics, I’ve poured my energy into researching the aggregation of firm-level fluctuations into national economic trends.

But I realized something: even the most insightful research can remain hidden if it’s buried in a dense long document. That’s why I built this site—a place where my thesis comes to life as an interactive, readable, and accessible resource.

Why I Created This Site

When I finished my thesis, I felt both proud and frustrated. I had answers to questions like:

  • Why does aggregate volatility sometimes remain high despite a large number of firms?
  • How do firm size distributions shape the national economy’s shocks?
  • What role do non-linearities and micro shocks play in shaping aggregate trends?

Yet these answers were trapped in a static PDF—hard to navigate, hard to share, and hard to update.

So I built this site as a dynamic companion to my thesis—a place where each chapter is a web page, and each insight can be linked, browsed, and even updated as new research emerges.

What You’ll Find Here

This is a structured journey through the core themes that drive my research:

  • Aggregate Volatility: How individual firm fluctuations aggregate into national patterns—and why it matters.
  • Firm Size Distributions: How a few large firms can dominate economic dynamics.
  • Quantile Analysis: A fresh perspective on analyzing groups of firms and their contributions to aggregate variance.
  • Technical Frameworks: Rigorous, math-backed derivations for the curious and the technical-minded.
  • Data Insights: Grounded in French customs trade data, showing how theory meets the real world.

Each section is designed to be approachable yet rigorous—so that whether you’re an economist, a data scientist, or simply curious, you can dive in at your own pace.

Why It Matters

Economic fluctuations affect us all—from policymakers designing regulations to investors assessing risks. By making this knowledge accessible, I hope to spark better conversations, smarter decisions, and more resilient economies.

For example: understanding that idiosyncratic variance doesn’t always vanish at scale helps explain why crises can emerge even in seemingly diversified systems. Insights like these can shape policies that account for real-world complexities rather than relying on oversimplified models.

Let’s Connect

I’d love to hear your thoughts, feedback, or even collaborate on related projects. Connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at matuteiglesias@gmail.com.

Suggested Citations

If you’d like to cite my work, please use the following references:

Iglesias, M. N. (2020). Essays in the Economics of Aggregation in Empirical Contexts. Doctoral dissertation, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa, Italy. Available at https://dta.santannapisa.it/t/etd-11252020-152446/.

Iglesias, M. N. (2021).Measuring Size Distortions of Location Quotients.” International Economics, CEPII research center, Issue 167, pp. 189–205.

Iglesias, M. N. (2021).The Overlooked Insights from Correlation Structures in Economic Geography.” Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG), Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised January 2021.


Matías Iglesias Economist, Data Scientist