He is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), and co-editor of the Journal of Human Resources. He has served on the editorial board of Lacea's Economia and the American Economic Journal. His research focuses on understanding educational markets; two areas of focus are the consequences of school choice, and the characteristics and impact of college reputation. Urquiola received a B.A. from Swarthmore College and a Ph.D. from the University of California Berkeley. He held prior appointments at Cornell University’s Economics Department, the World Bank’s research department, the Bolivian Ministry of Human Development, and the Bolivian Catholic University.