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

PhD in Economics from the University of Barcelona. She worked as a researcher at the Centre for Economic Performance of the London School of Economics and as a lecturer at the University of Konstanz (Germany). She also collaborated with the What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth in London. She is a specialist in public policy evaluation and has led projects for public, private and third sector institutions, especially in the fields of labour economics, social protection and the fight against poverty and urban 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.

Alejandra Almagro

Graduate in Economics from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. She also holds a Master’s Degree in Economics, Regulation and Competition of Public Services from the University of Barcelona. Her areas of interest include Competition, Infrastructure and Transport Economics and Regulation. She is currently working at KSNET as Research Assistant.

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

Graduated in Economics from the University of British Columbia and Master’s in Economics and Finance from the Center for Monetary and Financial Studies (CEMFI). She has worked as an economist for the Center for the Study of Living Standards in Canada preparing reports on equality, poverty and economic development and as a research assistant for the Bank of Spain, CEMFI, and the University of British Columbia (UBC). She specializes in the impact evalution of public policies, specifically in the areas of inequality, poverty, and gender.

Paula Casás

Graduate in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Pompeu Fabra University, where she obtained Honours Degrees in Public Management and Ethics and Political Philosophy. She also has two postgraduate degrees, one in Data Analysis for Political Analysis and Public Management at the UB, and another in Social and Solidarity Economy – Cooperative Studies coordinated by Ciutat Invisible and the UPF. His areas of interest are very cross-cutting and range from public policy evaluation and data management to social and solidarity economy and community management.

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.

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

Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Pompeu Fabra University, jointly taught by Autonomous University of Barcelona, Autonomous University of Madrid and Carlos III University. He has obtained honours in subjects such as Descriptive Statistics, History of Economic Thought, Microeconomics and Logic and Argumentation. His main areas of interest are environmental economics, sustainability and the effects of public policies.

Esther Rubio

She has a degree in Audiovisual Communication from  Carlos III University  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

Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Barcelona and currently pursuing doctoral studies at the Universitat de Barcelona School of Economics and in the Public Policy programme at the Barcelona Institute of Economics (IEB). Researcher in economics at KSNET since February 2018. He has extensive experience in database construction, data analysis and econometric modelling for policy and programme evaluation in the area of labour market, education and poverty. His areas of interest are economics of education, gender economics, labour market economics, impact evaluation of public policies, applied microeconometrics and data science.

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

Public policy consultant specialising in the areas of child poverty, social inclusion, gender equality and social policy. She has worked as an analyst in the OECD’s Employment, Labour and Social Affairs department and holds a Master’s degree in European Public Policy Analysis from the College of Europe in Bruges. She is also a PhD researcher at the European University Institute in Florence.

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.