 His postgraduate thesis was about flexibility in the labor market.He began work on his doctorate in Economics at the University of Cambridge with a President of the Republic Scholarship ("Beca Presidente de la República"), which he applied for in 1990, but he returned to Chile to work in the Chilean section of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and did not finish the doctorate program.In 1995, he became the Chilean representative to the APEC forum, conducting trade negotiations on economic cooperation.