UB School of Economics welcomes 19 new researchers in 2025

The UB School of Economics is excited to welcome a distinguished group of new researchers to the University of Barcelona. These new colleagues bring expertise across many fields of economics that will enrich our research environment, enhance the student learning experience, and foster collaborations across the Departments, its research structures, and the broader university community.

This year, 19 new researchers have joined our Faculty.

• Giacomo Brusco joins the Department of Economics as an Assistant Professor in the Public Economics section. His research focuses on Public Economics, with particular emphasis on the incidence of taxation. He earned his PhD in Economics from the University of Michigan in 2020.
• Francesco Capozza joins the Department of Economics as an Assistant Professor in the Public Economics section. His research interests include Political Economy, particularly news consumption and polarization, as well as Mental Health and Public Economics, with a focus on welfare weights. He earned his PhD in Economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam in 2023.
• Jordi Caum Julio joins the Department of Economic History, Institutions, Politics, and World Economy as an Assistant Professor. His research interests focus on institutions, inequality, and public goods, particularly in colonial India and the Philippines. He earned his PhD in Economic History from the Universitat de Barcelona in 2023.
• Saba Devdariani joins the Department of Economics as a Beatriu de Pinós Research Fellow in the Economic Theory section. His research interests include applied theory in political science, political economy, American politics, bureaucracy, and formal theory. He earned his PhD in Social Sciences in Political Economy from the California Institute of Technology in 2021.
• Federico Franzoni joins the Department of Economics as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow in the Public Economics section. His research interests include political economy and public economics. He earned his PhD in Economics and Finance from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in 2023.
• Oihane Gallo joins the Department of Economic, Financial and Actuarial Mathematics as an Assistant Professor. Her research interests include game theory and social choice. She earned her PhD in Economics from the University of the Basque Country in 2020.
• Charles Gauthier joins the Department of Economic History, Institutions, Politics, and World Economy as a Postdoctoral Researcher on the ERC project “Leveraging Early Adolescence for Development: Longitudinal and Experimental Evidence from Ghana.” His research interests include econometrics, computational economics, revealed preference theory, and child development. He earned his PhD in Economics and Finance from the University of Western Ontario in 2022.
• Luis Guirola joins the Department of Econometrics, Statistics and Applied Economics as an Assistant Professor in the Econometrics and Statistics section. His research interests include fertility and family economics, inequality and gender gaps, and the effects of political polarization on economic expectations and trust. He earned his PhD in Economics and Finance from Duke University in 2021.
• Susana Herrero Olarte joins the Department of Econometrics, Statistics and Applied Economics as an Assistant Professor in the Econometrics and Statistics section. Her research interests include development economics, political economy, and risk and insurance. She earned her PhD in Applied Economics from the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia in 2014.
• David Jimenez-Gómez joins the Department of Economic, Financial and Actuarial Mathematics as an Assistant Professor. His research interests include behavioral science, with a focus on behavioral game theory, the evolutionary origins of preferences, and the intersection of behavioral science and artificial intelligence. He earned his PhD in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2015.
• Ernest Miguelez joins the Department of Econometrics, Statistics and Applied Economics as an Associate Professor in the Econometrics and Statistics section. His research interests include economic geography, innovation economics, migration, and intellectual property, and more recently, the diffusion and adoption of green technologies and products. He earned his PhD in Economics from the Universitat de Barcelona in 2013.
• Jaime Millán-Quijano joins the Department of Economics as an Assistant Professor in the Public Economics section. His research interests include applied microeconomics, development economics, and public policy, using both experimental and non-experimental data. He earned his PhD in Economics from University College London in 2014.
• Rubén Pérez-Sanz joins the Department of Econometrics, Statistics and Applied Economics as an Assistant Professor in the Econometrics and Statistics section. His research interests include labor economics and structural microeconometrics, with a focus on minimum wages and collective bargaining using Social Security data. He earned his PhD in Economic Analysis from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in 2022.
• Fabien Petit joins the Department of Economics as an Assistant Professor in the Economic Theory section. His research interests include labor markets, technologies, skills, generations, and inequality. He earned his PhD in Economics from Aix-Marseille University in 2022.
• Davide Pietrobon joins the Department of Economics as an Assistant Professor in the Economic Theory section. His research interest is development economics. He earned his PhD in Economics from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the Barcelona School of Economics in 2019.
• Maxim Senkov joins the Department of Economic, Financial and Actuarial Mathematics as a Postdoctoral Researcher. His research interests include information design, costly information acquisition, and dynamic incentive problems. He earned his PhD in Economics from CERGE-EI in 2023.
• Alex Urrego Mesa joins the Department of Economic History, Institutions, Politics, and World Economy as an Assistant Professor. His research interests include economic history and international trade. He earned his PhD in Economic History from Universitat de Barcelona in 2021.
• Guglielmo Ventura joins the Department of Economics as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Public Economics section. His research interests include education and labour. He earned his PhD in Economics from University College London in 2023.
• Shiyun Zhang joins the Department of Economics as an Assistant Professor in the Economic Theory section. Her research interests include macroeconomics, crime, immigration, frictional labor markets, and marriage markets. She earned her PhD in Economics from the University of California, Riverside in 2019.

 

We extend our warmest welcome to all researchers as they join UB School of Economics’ scholarly community. Their presence promises to enhance our academic excellence and contribute to our ongoing commitment to outstanding research!

We look forward to the valuable contributions they will bring to our institution and the research community. You can check the complete list of UB School of Economics researchers here.

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