Research topic:

Exploring the Impact of Universal Childcare Policies on Children's Development Throughout the Life Cycle 

Pablo is a Visiting PhD Research Student in Social Policy. With a BSc in International Studies from Carlos III University of Madrid and a Master’s in Labour Economics from the University of Barcelona, he is currently advancing his PhD in Economics at the Universitat de Girona under the supervision of Sara Ayllón (IZA). His research combines meta-analysis and quasi-experimental methodologies to scrutinize the effects of universal childcare policies on child development, specifically examining the role of publication bias, the influence of family socioeconomic background and long-term developmental outcomes.

Before starting his PhD, Pablo worked as a research assistant at Pompeu Fabra University, where he delved into a conjoint experiment exploring student preferences in tertiary education programs. He has also experience in policy consulting, where he contributed to various initiatives including the analysis of the intergenerational transmission of poverty in Spain and the enhancement of minimum income scheme programs, collaborating with entities such as the Spanish Ministry of Social Rights or the Government of the Canary Islands.

Research interests: Pablo's academic research interest revolve around the economics of education, family economics, applied microeconometrics, public policy evaluation, and exploring inequality of opportunity. His first PhD chapter employs advanced meta-analysis techniques to determine if publication bias influences causal estimates of universal childcare programs on child development. In the second chapter, he investigates the impact of income-adjusted childcare fees on the enrollment of immigrant children in universal childcare, utilizing a staggered event study approach. The final chapter assesses the long-term developmental returns of Barcelona’s public childcare expansion, employing a difference-in-differences design for continuous treatments to compare health, education, and labor market outcomes across children cohorts and districts.

Supervisor: Professor Almudena Sevilla