David Castells-Quintana and Maria Sánchez Vidal receive prize for outstanding PhD research in Economics

PhD alumni of the UB School of Economics David Castells-Quintana and Maria Sánchez Vidal have each received an UB Extraordinary Doctoral Prize for their outstanding PhD thesis in Economics at the award ceremony that took place in the main hall of the Historic Building of the University of Barcelona on April 19th, 2018. David Castells-Quintana is the award winner for the 2014/15 academic year, while Maria Sánchez Vidal is the recipient for 2015/16. This prize is awarded to the best PhD theses among those which received the Cum Laude distinction.

David Castells-Quintana was awarded an UB Extraordinary Doctoral Prize for his PhD thesis Three Empirical Essays on Concentration of Resources and Economic Growth, supervised by Dr. Vicente Royuela. This thesis contributes to the understanding of the evolution of two global trends of modern economic development and their impact on economic growth in the long term. These trends are increased agglomeration and inequalities within countries. The thesis is mainly a work of applied economics.

Dr. Castells-Quintana is currently a visiting professor at the department of Applied Economics of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and adjunct lecturer at the Study Abroad Program of the Fundació UAB. He is also a research affiliate to the AQR-IREA Research Group at the UB, and member of the Spanish Network on Development Studies (REEDES). “Receiving this prize is a great satisfaction for me as well as a motivation to keep on working”, he explained.

Maria Sánchez Vidal received the UB Extraordinary Doctoral Prize for her PhD thesis Essays on Urban Economics, supervised by Dr. Jordi Jofre Monseny and Dr. Elisabet Viladecans Marsal. Her thesis contributes to the urban economics literature providing three interesting findings about the economics of city formation and evolution, including the mechanisms driving the existence of cities of different sizes, the local employment responses to large manufacturing plant closures and the effects of big-box store openings.

Dr. Sánchez Vidal is now a post-doctoral researcher at the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics (LSE) and a research affiliate at the Barcelona Institute of Economics (IEB). “I am very flattered to receive this prize, which I could have never won without the help of my wonderful supervisors. Also, it is an honour that the academic community considered this thesis the best in 2015/16, not only for personal reasons but also because it recognises research in urban economics, a growing field that is earning the place it deserves in the academic world”, she said.

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