Filippo Tassinari, a doctoral student at the Barcelona Institute of Economics (IEB), was one of the two winners of the fourth Nada es Gratis Prize awarded by Job Market Papers en Economía.

Filippo Tassinari received the prize for his study “Low emission zones and traffic jams: Evidence from Central Madrid”. The members of the jury praised the methodology applied in the study and its ability to transmit the results of the research.

The article analyses the extent to which the implementation of a low emission zone in the city centre reduces traffic and also whether it increases the circulation of vehicles in non-restricted zones. The study indicates that, despite the displacement of traffic, the policy was effective as an incentive for using public transport for direct trips to the city centre and for replacing old vehicles with new models that cause less pollution. The study also shows that the reduction in traffic in the city centre ceased as of July 2019 when the new municipal government decided not to penalize unauthorized entries into the restricted area.

The award of the prize represents a recognition of the work of IEB doctoral students and an acknowledgement of the IEB’s commitment to encouraging and promoting the completion of doctoral theses. His thesis directors are the IEB researchers Elisabet Viladecans-Marsal and Miquel Àngel García-López.

The other winner of the Nada es Gratis Prize was Héctor Blanco of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for his study “Are mixed-rent buildings the solution to the problems of public housing?”