Felipe’s primary research is in international finance and economic growth. His research focuses on the effects of international financial crises on aggregated productivity. In particular, he examines how drastic reductions on capital inflows (sudden stops) affect the creation and development of firms, scarring the process of productivity accumulation. Financial development is a key ingredient for understanding the transitory and permanent components of these episodes, as more developed financial systems are better able to allocate the scarce resources during crises. A secondary stream of research focuses on the determinants of capital misallocation in the economy. For instance, how rent-seeking behavior distorts the investment decision of firms by altering the effective corporate tax rate that they face.