Three doctoral students from the IEB, Alessio Romarri, Magdalena Domínguez and Rodrigo Martínez have recently presented their PhD theses at the University of Barcelona. The first to do so was Alessio Romarri, whose thesis entitled “Essays on Immigration and Political Economy” was awarded the grade of excellent cum laude. His thesis was supervised by Javier Vázquez-Grenno, professor at the University of Barcelona and researcher at the IEB, and by Rubén Durante, professor at the Pompeu Fabra University. Having completed his period as a doctoral student at the IEB, Romarri will now join the Università di Milano in Italy.

Magdalena Domínguez’s thesis was entitled ‘Essays on networks and crime’ and was also awarded the grade of excellent cum laude. Under the supervision of IEB researcher Daniel Montolio, Domínguez analysed the role played by different types of networks in crime. Using the Barcelona Metropolitan Area as a case study, she investigated the effect of some of the public policies introduced in recent years. She will now join Uppsala Universitet in Sweden.

Rodrigo Martínez completes the list with his thesis ‘Causes and consequences of the housing affordability crisis’, which also obtained the grade of excellent cum laude. Martínez’s thesis, supervised by the IEB researcher Jordi Jofre-Monseny, addresses issues related to the housing market and its accessibility. Like Domínguez, Martinez will now join Uppsala Universitet in Sweden.

The IEB is fully committed to training future researchers. The preparation and presentation of PhD theses is one of the most important results of the institute’s research and training activities. The IEB welcomes a large number of doctoral students in Economics, and regularly offers positions for pre-doctoral researchers to carry out their PhD theses.