The Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Barcelona concentrates a large number of spatial economists, working in several Research Groups and Departments and teaching a specialization in Regional and Urban issues in the Master in Economics Graduate Programme.

The Faculty enjoys the highest national and international academic recognition. The staff members working in Regional Science and Urban Economics publish in top ranked international journals, belong to Editorial Boards of international journals and lead Research Projects funded by Spanish and International Organisations. In the recent past it has hosted the Spatial Econometrics World Conference (2009) and the European Regional Science Association Conference (2011), one of the best ever organised according to many delegates. Together with the regular seminar series, the research groups of the Faculty organize regularly several International Workshops on Regional Science and Urban Economics.

Research in Regional Science and Urban Economics 

UB Economics

Master in Economics – specialization in Regional and Urban Economics

http://www.ub.edu/ubeconomics/master-in-economics/

PhD Program in Economics

http://www.ub.edu/ubeconomics/phd-in-economics/

Research Groups

Thesis on Regional Science in the last five years

2016

OMAR GARCÍA LEÓN:  Tres ensayos sobre la movilidad laboral. Aspectos metodológicos y evidencia empírica

Director: Raúl Ramos Lobo

KAREN DAVTIAN: Essays on Macroeconomic Policies and Redistribution

Directors: Josep Lluis Carrion Silvestre and Raúl Ramos Lobo

JESSICA ORDÓÑEZ CUENCA: Tres ensayos sobre Migración y Mercado Laboral en Ecuador

Directors: Raúl Ramos Lobo and Vicente Royuela

2015

ESTHER GOYA CARRILLO: R&D Cooperation: Determinants, Persitence and its effect on Firms'Innovative Perfomance

Directors: Jordi Suriñach Caralt and Esther Vayà Valcarce

DAVID CASTELLS QUINTANA: Three Empirical Essays on Concentration of Resources and Economic Growth

Director: Vicente Royuela

CAROLINA HINTZMAN: Empirical Essays on Labour Productivity in EU Manufacturing

Directors: Josep Lladós Masllorens and Raül Ramos Lobo

ÓSCAR VILLAR: Crisis and Financial Contagion: New Evidences and New Methodological Approach

Director: Josep Lluis Carrion Silvestre

2014

PAULA HERRERA IDÁRRAGA  Three Empirical Essays on Eduaction and Informality in the Labor Market of a Developing Country: The Colombian Case

Director Enrique López Bazo and Elisabet Motellón Corral

SANDRA NIETO VIRAMONTES Essays on Overeducation: Evidence from Spain

Director: Raúl Ramos Lobo

2013

LEONARDO TARIFFI – PhD Ensayos sobre los determinantes reales del tipo de cambio

Director: Raúl Ramos

ERNEST MIGUÉLEZ– PhD Mobile knowledge through mobile people: essays on geographical labour mobility of inventors in Europe

Director: Rosina Moreno and Francesco Lissoni

2012

SERGIO AFCHA - PhD Evaluación de las ayudas públicas a la I+D. Un análisis de los efectos de la adicionalidad de comportamiento

José García-Quevedo

CLAUDIA TELLO – PhD Essays on wage inequality and mobility in Mexico

Director: Raul Ramos

Students Awards in Regional Science in the last years

2016 - DAVID CASTELLS QUINTANA - Malthus living in slum: Urban concentration, infraestructure and economic growth in the Journal of Urban Economics

José Manuel Blecua Prize for the best paper in Social Sciences resulting from a PhD dissertation - 2016

2016 - DAVID CASTELLS QUINTANA -"Three Empirical Essays on Concentration of Resources and Economic Growth"

Extraordinary Prize of Doctors of the Faculty of Economic and Business of the University of Barcelona - 2015/2016.

2015 - SANDRA NIETO VIRAMONTES - Overeducation, skills and wage penalty: Evidence for Spain using PIAAC data

María Jesús San Segundo prize to the best communication of young researchers at the XXIV meeting of the Spanish Economics of Education Association 2015

2015 - ERNEST MIGUÉLEZ - What attracts knowledge workers?  The  role  of  space  and  social  connections", published in the Journal of Regional Science.   

José Manuel Blecua Prize for the best paper in Social Sciences resulting from a PhD dissertation - 2015

2015 - ERNEST MIGUÉLEZ - Essays on the geography of innovation: knowledge workers’ mobility, networks  and spillovers”

9th Award of the Council of Doctors of the University of Barcelona

2014 - ERIKA BADILLO -  Are R&D collaborative agreements persistent at the firm level? Evidence for the Spanish case.

Càtedra University - Firm collaboration to promote Firm Innovation 

Additional Information

Students Graduated (at the Master or PhD Program) are actually working in prestigious Universities and Institutions in the World, such as McGill University, University of Oxford,  IRSTEA – Grenoble (France), EAFIT University (Colombia), Economics and Statistics Division, WIPO – Geneva (Switzerland), University of Groningen, etc. 

The Faculty in the rankings

The Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Barcelona is in top of the world institutions in Economic Geography, Urban and Real Estate economics, Transport Economics, Tourism Economics and Economics of Human Migration. Besides, several of the research groups and scholars are also within the main research institutions in Spain.