Bolivian and Spanish writer and economist
Roberto Laserna (born 1953) is a Bolivian and Spanish writer and economist who earned a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in regional planning.
Career.
He won the Literary National Prize Franz Tamayo in 1976 before becoming a scientist. His book "20 (mis)conceptions on coca and cocaine" addresses drug policy and development problems, and "La democracia en el ch`enko" explains one of the most neglected causes of economic stagnation: economic heterogeneity. In his later book "La Trampa del Rentismo" Laserna presents his theory on the Rent-seeking trap, and explores the influence of the abundance of natural resources in shaping the political institutions and economic culture that drives underdevelopment in Bolivia. 
He has also researched social conflicts, drug trafficking, decentralization and urbanization. He was a professor at Universidad Mayor de San Simon, and has been at Princeton University (2003–2004). He is a researcher at CERES, a private research center in Cochabamba and President of Fundacion Milenio, a think tank in La Paz.
Co authored Works.
1994 a Paradojas de la Modernidad. Sociedad y Cambios en Bolivia; co-authored with Fernando Calderón. La Paz, Ed. Fundación Milenio.
On the author:
Caceres Romero Adolfo, Diccionario de la Literatura Boliviana, Ed Los Amigos del Libro.
Molina Fernando, El pensamiento boliviano sobre los recursos naturales, Ed. Pulso, La Paz.
Guttentag Tichauer Werner, Bio-bibliografia boliviana (several years). 
By the author:
Urbanizacion y pobreza, Ed. Pulso, La Paz, 2007
La trampa del rentismo, Ed. Milenio, La Paz, 2006
La democracia en el ch'enko, Ed. Milenio/Ceres, La Paz, 2005
20 (mis)conceptions on coca and cocaine, Ed. Clave, La Paz, 1997
See also:
Socio-political conflict and economic performance in Bolivia, with Jose Luis Evia and Stergios Skaperdas, [URL]
Decentralization, Local Iniktiatives and Cirizenship in Bolivia, 1994–2004, in the book Participatory Innovation and Representative Democracy in Latin America, edited by Andrew Selee and Enrique Peruzzotti, The Johns Hopkins University/Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2009
References.
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