Partners

Paula Salinas

She holds a PhD in Economics from Universitat de Barcelona and a MSc in Economics from Univeristy College of London. She worked as a researcher at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and BGSE, at Institut d’Economia de Barcelona, at Generalitat de Catalunya and at Diputació de Barcelona. Her main areas of research are public sector economics, education economics, and environmental economics.

María Sánchez

She holds a PhD in Economics from Universitat de Barcelona. She is also an affiliated researcher at the London School of Economic’s Centre for Economic Performance and at Institut d’Economia de Barcelona. She collaborated as a researcher at the What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth in London. Her specialization lies in public policy evaluation, especially in the areas of urban economics and labor economics.

Team members

Romén Adán González

Graduate in Political Science from Pompeu Fabra University, Master in Big Data & Data Science from Complutense University and Master in Political and Electoral Analysis from Carlos III University, where he was awarded the prize for the best academic record of his promotion. His areas of interest include data analysis, visualisation and modelling, and public policy evaluation.

Mireia Álvarez

Graduated in Economics from Pompeu Fabra University where she excelled in Public Management. She is currently studying the Public and Social Policies Master’s Degree from Pompeu Fabra University in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University. Her areas of interest are health and public health policies, poverty and inequality, gender economics, and policies for children and youth.

Cristina Blanco

Master in Economics and Finance from the Center for Monetary and Financial Studies (CEMFI) in Madrid. She has worked as an economist for the Centre for the Study of Living Standards in Canada, writing reports on inequality, poverty, and economic development. She has also worked as a research assistant for the Bank of Spain, CEMFI, and The University of British Columbia (UBC) in research projects on minimum wages, elite power capturing, and gender equality.

María Coroleu

Master in Managerial Development, Emotional Intelligence and Coaching and BA in Business Administration. She has more than 10 years of experience and has worked as the head of Operations in a broker agency, at the Marketing and Administration Department in an NGO and as the person in charge of management and KPIS at a leading company in Mexico. Currently, she is the manager of KSNET.

Júlia Cots

BA in Law and BSc in Economics from Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. Employment and social security lawyer. She is currently enrolled in the Master of Public Policy at the Hertie School in Berlin, with a specialisation in quantitative policy analysis. Her areas of interest are social welfare policies, mainly labour and education, both from a design perspective as well as from their implementation and evaluation.

María Laffaire

MSc in Public Policy from the University of Pennsylvania and MSc in Econometrics from the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella. She specializes in public policy analysis and evaluation. She previously worked as Coordinator of Monitoring and Evaluation at CIPPEC in Argentina and as an evaluation consultant there and in the US. At present, she works as a researcher at KSNET. Her fields of interest are social policy, education and experimental evaluation.

Pau Orive

Student of the Degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, jointly with the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and the Universidad Carlos III. He has obtained honors in subjects such as Descriptive Statistics, History of Economic Thought, Microeconomics or Logic and Argumentation. His areas of interest are environmental economics, sustainability and public policy.

Esther Rubio

She has a degree in Audiovisual Communication from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and postgraduate training in Cultural Management, Digital Marketing and Publishing. With more than 10 years of experience, she has worked in the field of communication of cultural companies and companies linked to the university environment, as well as in project management and digital companies. She currently works at KSNET as a research project manager.

Pere Antoni Taberner

Researcher in economics at KSNET since February 2018, a PhD student at the University of Barcelona School of Economics and a member of the Public Policy Program of the Institute of Economics in Barcelona (IEB). He co-organizes the online seminars GEEZ (Graduat Students in Economics of Education) and founded the blog “Economía para Principiantes“. His research and interests lie within the umbrella of applied microeconomics and public policy evaluation, especially in the areas of education, gender, labour, health and poverty and inequality.

Pablo Tucat

Researcher in Economics at KSNET and Associate Professor in the Department of Economics and Business at the Pompeu Fabra University. He holds a Master in Public and Social Policy from Pompeu Fabra University and a Master in Applied Economics from Torcuato Di Tella University in Argentina. Previously, he has worked as a consultant in social housing programmes, and as an economic advisor for the Argentinean government and other public agencies in Argentina on infrastructure and economic development programmes. His areas of interest include local economic development, housing and urban economics, and public policy innovation.

Regular collaborators

Ariane Aumaitre

PhD student at the European University Institute in Florence. Master in European Public Policy Analysis by the Bruges College of Europe, where she has also worked as a research assistant at the Political Studies Department. Her areas of expertise are social policy and, more specifically, the redistributive impact of developed Welfare States. She also published research in the area of work-life balance and gender equality.

Berta Barbet

PhD in Political Science and International Relations by the University of Leicester. Master in Political Behavior and Public Opinion by the University of Essex. She is currently post-electoral researcher at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and collaborates regularly with different organizations and media. She specializes in the study of citizens’ attitudes, perceptions and behaviours and the use of experimental methods in surveys.

Laura Costas

Master in Graphic Design and Digital Art from Seeway. She also holds a Political Science and Management degree from Universitat Pompeu Fabra. She worked at Fundació Catalunya-La Pedrera, as a graphic designer at The Bond VFX and also collaborates with the GlobalCAD producing company. In KSNET, she is in charge of the areas of infographics, edition and graphic design.

Jorge Díaz Lanchas

Professor of Economics at the Universidad Pontificia Comillas-ICADE. He holds a PhD and a Master’s degree from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. He has been an economist at the European Commission (Joint Research Centre) and a postdoc researcher at the CID of Harvard University, as well as a visiting professor at several universities. His research areas focus on international economics, regional and urban economics, impact evaluation and European public opinion.

Jordi García

Jordi holds a degree in Business Sciences but started computer programming at the age of 10. Some years ago, he developed a popular data compression tool for macOS and iOS and he currently works maintaining and improving it. Previously, he worked as an Industrial Engineer at Tectrol S.A., for clients such as Logista S.A. and P.G.. He has long-standing experience in management and technological advice for companies and individuals.

Lucas Gortázar

Phd in Economics from Universidad del País Vasco. He also holds a Master in Economics from CEMFI and a Master in Mathematical Modelling from UCL. He has worked for the Education Global Practice at the World Bank. He coordinates the Education Cycle in the blog Politikon, he is a member of Atlántida Project and part of the Core Team of the Basic Education Global Solutions Group at the World Bank.

Manuel Hidalgo

BA in Economics, Master in Economics and Phd in Economics from Univeritat Pompeu Fabra. Professor in Economics at Universidad Pablo de Olavide in Sevilla since 1998. Economics editor of Agenda Pública. He was General Secretary of Economics at the Andalusian Government (2019-2020).

Victor Lapuente

Political science professor at Göteborg University. He holds a PhD from the University of Oxford and a Master in public management from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. He writes pieces of news for “El Pais”, he collaborates with the radio Onda Cero and he is a member of the blog “Piedras de Papel”. His areas of interest are public management, government quality and corruption.

Patricio Lecca

Professor of Economics at ICADE-Universidad Pontificia Comillas. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Cagliari (Sardinia, Italy) and the Strathclyde Business School (Glasgow, UK). He has previously worked at the University of Strathclyde, the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, the Netherlands Environment Agency and Wageningen University & Research. He has published his work in economics and energy-environmental journals. His main research areas are economic modelling, energy economics and economic impact assessment.

David Márquez

He holds a Master in cultural management from University Paris VIII and a BA in Political Science and Public Administration Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He worked as cultural manager and consultant. He has also acted as president of the Associació de Companyies Professionals de Dansa de Catalunya, founder and vicepresident of the Federación Estatal de Compañías y Empresas de Danza and member of the Board of IETM.

Ramon Marrades

BA in Economics from the University of Valencia and Master’s in Economics and Geography from Utrecht University. He is the manager of the Placemaking Europe Foundation and a strategic advisor of the Creative Bureaucracy Festival. He worked as a researcher and led a series of projects in different South American countries and in Australia. His areas of expertise are Urban Economics and Strategy. He also co-edited several books and contributes regularly to the newspaper valenciaplaza.com.

Eva Matos

Eva is as Vice President at Ideas42, where she leads projects aimed at combating poverty, expanding financial inclusion, and improving education using body-based behavioral sciences. Eva worked as a global program coordinator at Oxfam influencing governments and multilateral institutions in several countries on topics related to inequality. She studied Psychology and Political Science at George Washington University, and did her MSc in Social Policy and International Development at the London School of Economics.

Stephan Maurer

Stephan is an assistant professor at Konstanz University (Germany). He holds a PhD in Economics from the London School of Economics and a master in Economics from the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics (BGSE). He is also an affiliate at the Centre for Economic Performance (LSE). His areas of expertise are labour economics,  economic history and economic geography.

Octavio Medina

Master in Public Administration from the London School of Economics (LSE) and economic consultant at the Education Global Practice at the World Bank. Previously, he worked as consultant in labour markets and social security at the Inter-American Development Bank. He also co-coordinates the Education Cycle in the blog Politikon, where he also co-authored two books.

María Pomés

Master in Public Policy from Georgetown University and BA in Communication from  Universidad de Navarra. Independent consultant in analysis and evaluation of social policies and human capital for multilaterals, strategic consultancies and NGOs. She has more than a decade of experience in working in teams and projects for the World Bank, European and UN institutions and agencies and international political organisms. Her interests lie in welfare and family policies.

Pedro Rey

Associate professor of behavioural economics at ESADE. He holds a PhD in Economics from University College London and a Master in Economics and Finance from CEMFI. He worked as the director of Behavioral Science Research at “All of US” at Scripps Research Institute at San Diego. His areas of interest are experimental and behavioural economics. He is also one of the editors of the blog “Nada es Gratis”.

Vanessa Sarkis

She holds a Degree in Sociology from the University of Barcelona and Master’s in Social Policies and Community Action from the Institute of Government and Social Policies (IGOP). She has more than 15 years of experience in developing coexistence plans from an intercultural and gender perspective in high complexity territories

Maite Vilalta

Professor of Economics and Vice-rector of equality and social action at University of Barcelona, where she did her PhD. She was a member of the expert committee that computed the fiscal balance of Catalonia and the representative of the Catalan government for the State-Region committee of transfers. Her areas of expertise are fiscal federalism and regional and local public finance.