A total of four new doctoral students enrolled at the Barcelona Institute of Economics (IEB) in the 2023/24 academic year. As students pursuing their PhD in economics at the University of Barcelona, the new additions – Sergio Blanco, Juan Pascual, Sofía Balladares and Jingyang Wang – maintain the international profile of all the students writing their theses at the IEB.
Sergio Blanco studied economics at the Autonomous University of Madrid and earned a master’s degree in economic analysis at Carlos III University of Madrid (UC3M). He has also worked as a pre-doctoral researcher at Esade, UC3M and the Institute for Economic Analysis-Spanish National Research Council (IAE-CSIC). His research interests include labour economics and public policy evaluation, with a particular focus on family economics. His thesis supervisors are Claudia Hupkau, Lidia Farré and Jenifer Ruiz-Valanzuela.
Juan Pascual studied economics at the University of Valencia and earned an MSc in economics at the Barcelona School of Economics. He has also worked as a pre-doctoral researcher at the University of Zurich and as a consultant at KSNET, 3ie and the World Bank. His research interests revolve around public policy evaluation, with a particular focus on the intersection between education and crime. His thesis supervisors are Daniel Montolio and Jenifer Ruiz-Valenzuela.
Sofía Balladares studied economics at the University of Oviedo before going on to earn a master’s degree in development economics from Carlos III University of Madrid and Lund University (LU). She has also worked as a research assistant in various projects related to the study of inequality and redistribution: at LU under the supervision of Sara Torregrosa, at the Paris School of Economics under the supervision of Gabriel Zucman and at the Bank of Spain, in the Public Sector and Fiscal Policy unit. Her research interests include the analysis of inequality, tax systems and public policy evaluation. Her thesis supervisor is Dirk Foremny.
Jingyang Wang studied economics at the University of Zurich and finance at Shanghai University. She has also worked as a research assistant at KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich. Her research interests include energy and public policy. Her thesis supervisors are José Garcia-Quevedo and Elisa Trujillo-Baute.