The Barcelona GSE has been accredited as a Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence for the third consecutive time by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. Only five research centers across all scientific fields have received accreditation in all three editions of the program (2012-15; 2016-19; 2020-23).

As a Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence, Barcelona GSE is proud to be part of the SOMM Alliance, which works to promote excellence in Spanish research and to enhance its social impact at national and international levels.

The following Barcelona GSE research initiatives received support from the previous edition of the Severo Ochoa Program (2016-19) or will receive support in the current edition (2020-23):

Calvó-Armengol International Prize

The Calvó Prize is awarded every two years to a top researcher in economics or social sciences younger than 40 years old for contributions to the theory and comprehension of the mechanisms of social interaction.

6th Calvó-Armengol Prize to be awarded to Benjamin Golub (Harvard University)

In Fall 2019, Professor Benjamin Golub was chosen to receive the Calvó Prize for his deep, foundational, and timely work on how the structure of people’s social connections determines their opinions and behaviors.

The award ceremony in Andorra and the Calvó Prize Lecture in Barcelona were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. They will be rescheduled at a later date.

Esther Duflo: From Calvó Prize to Nobel Prize in just nine years

In addition to being the youngest researcher who has ever received the Economics Nobel and only the second woman to do so, Esther Duflo was also the first laureate of the Calvó-Armengol Prize to win the Nobel.

Professor Duflo was our invited speaker at our virtual graduation ceremony for the Barcelona GSE Class of 2020.

Calvó-Armengol Prize Laureate Melissa Dell wins 2020 Clark Medal

The Clark Medal is awarded annually to an economist under the age of 40 and working in the United States who is judged to have made the most significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge.

Economics “Trobada”

The Economics “Trobada” is an annual gathering of Barcelona GSE affiliated professors that marks the beginning of the academic year, introduces new faculty and their work to the research community, and serves as a venue for debate and idea exchange on current Economics issues.

The Trobada features presentations of research by members of the Barcelona GSE community. This year, all four projects were presented by female economists in the Barcelona GSE community:

• Ursula Mello (IAE-CSIC and Barcelona GSE)
  “Does Affirmative Action in Higher Education Impact High School Students?”
• Katerina Petrova (UPF and Barcelona GSE)
  “A Generalised Lp-Norm Filter for Time-Varying Parameter Models”
• Victoria Vanasco (CREI-UPF and Barcelona GSE)
  “The Good, the Bad, and the Complex: Product Design with Imperfect Information”
• Hanna Wang (MOVE-UAB and Barcelona GSE)
  “Fertility and Family Leave Policies in Germany: Optimal Policy Design in a Dynamic Framework”

IDESCAT-Barcelona GSE Socioeconomic Dataset Project

The Barcelona GSE and the Statistical Institute of Catalonia (IDESCAT) have created a registry-level database for researchers interested in using the data that combines education, health, and other socio-economic data.

In 2019-20, three proposals for data access were evaluated and approved by the academic committee:

• Evaluation of dual vocational education in Catalonia
  Requested by Samuel Bentolia, Caterina Calsamiglia, and Marsel Jansen
• The effects of early childhood education on educational achievement and parental labor market outcomes: Evidence from Escoles Bressol
  Requested by Laurenz Baertsch, Caterina Calsamiglia, and Danet Donati
• Students’ success at school. Are grades good predictors of long-term educational and economic outcomes?
  Requested by Laura Mayoral and Jose Vicente Mora.

Research Recognition Program

This program acknowledges and rewards Barcelona GSE affiliated professors who have published research papers in a list of international economic journals of high impact within the last three years.

Summer Forum

The Summer Forum has been an annual meeting point in Europe for hundreds of international researchers every summer since 2013. The event could not be held this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In the spirit of the Summer Forum, a series of six Barcelona GSE Research Webinar events provided an online venue for researchers to debate their latest work with colleagues from all over the world. A total of 572 participants attended and 62 papers were presented during the online seminar programs.

Barcelona GSE Research Webinar programs, speakers, and papers

The next Barcelona GSE Summer Forum is scheduled for June 7-18, 2021.

Barcelona GSE Focus

The Focus is a website that offers research-based analysis and commentary from economists and social scientists in the Barcelona GSE community.

In 2019-20, there were 21 new articles published on the Focus.

The site has 1,177 email subscribers and receives visits from 133 countries (79% from outside Spain)

The Barcelona GSE Research Endowment was established with the aim to attract and retain top academic talent at the School’s academic units. Research Endowment revenues are dedicated exclusively to supporting the joint appointment of Barcelona GSE Research Professors with the academic units.

One new Research Professor and two new Associate Research Professors were appointed in 2019-20:

“la Caixa” Foundation Research Grants on Socioeconomic Well-being

«la Caixa» Foundation continued its support for ground-breaking research at the Barcelona GSE by supporting the third annual call for these competitive grants for Barcelona GSE Affiliated Professors. Once again, 5 projects were awarded grants for their ground-breaking methodologies and direct implications for socioeconomic well-being.

Barcelona GSE Lecture Series

Organized with support from Banc Sabadell, the Barcelona GSE Lecture Series brings some of the world’s top scholars in economics to Barcelona to share their research with the School community.

In 2019-20, the Barcelona GSE Lecture was delivered by Edward Miguel (University of California, Berkeley) on the topic, “Does Electrification Help the Poor?”

Supported by:

Barcelona GSE hosts 46th annual conference of the European Association for Research in Industrial Economics (EARIE)

World Wellbeing Panel

This year, the Barcelona GSE assumed the organization of the World Wellbeing Panel (WWP), in collaboration with the London School of Economics, Victoria University of Wellington, and the University of Queensland.

Several times a year, a panel of more than 50 economists, sociologists, behavioral scientists, and public policy experts from institutions in 15 countries are called upon to answer survey questions of relevance to wellbeing policy. These surveys foster debate which, over time, should lead to better policies and decisions.

As governments and institutions around the world took emergency action to slow the spread of the coronavirus, Barcelona GSE Affiliated Professors did their part by analyzing the economic impact of the pandemic, and by exploring policy interventions that can minimize that impact.