Raj Kharel 

Awarded a year-long fellowship by the Centre

Raj is a PhD. candidate specialising in regional innovation, economic geography, and network analysis. Currently based at the University of Stavanger, he investigates how R&D investment and connectivity shape regional innovation across Europe. Raj applies advanced quantitative methods, including panel econometrics and network science, to large datasets such as patent records and academic publications. 

Alongside academia, Raj has contributed as a consultant to the World Bank and the OECD on digital governance, subnational finance, regional competitiveness, post-war reconstruction and development, and cross-border co-operation. He holds an undergraduate degree from Nepal and two MScs—from Lund University in Welfare Policies and Management, and from the LSE in Local Economic Development. 

At the Centre, he is collaborating on research examining how academics interact with firm innovators to foster regional innovation, and how global service firms might strengthen these linkages. 

Ruoxuan Li 

Ruoxuan is a PhD. candidate in Development Economics. Her research interests encompass the political economy of development, economic geography, and environmental sustainability, with a particular focus on the role of finance in shaping market-based climate solutions. Her work focuses on three core areas: the political economy of carbon markets in Asia, corporate carbon offsetting and decision-making processes in state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and state–market relations in developing states, with the aim of examining the interplay between financialisation, carbon offsets, and state involvement in climate governance. 

Her doctoral research investigates how financialisation influences the implementation of carbon offsetting initiatives by major Chinese SOEs and considers the broader implications for corporate sustainability practices. By analysing how these enterprises utilise carbon offsets to establish environmental credibility, the study seeks to explore the relationship between sustainability reporting and ongoing investments in carbon-intensive sectors. Additionally, it examines how financial instruments are deployed not only as measures of environmental commitment but also as tools for managing market reputation. The research employs a case study and interview-based methodology to provide an empirically grounded analysis of these dynamics. 

Prof. Mita Marra 

She is an Associate Professor of Political Economy at the University of Naples Federico II. From 2016 to 2021, she was Visiting Professor of Comparative Public Policy at the George Washington University. She has also taught in the IPDET program at Carlton University and at Maastricht University. Her research focuses on the evaluation of innovation policies, with an emphasis on universities' role in regional innovation ecosystems and the assessment of public governance reforms. 

She holds a BA in Economics from the University of Naples, an MA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins – SAIS, and a PhD in Public Policy from George Washington University. She has consulted for the World Bank, UNDP, FAO, IFAD, the European Commission, and Italian regional governments. 

She is Co-Editor-in-Chief of Evaluation and Program Planning, serves on the boards of the European Evaluation Society and the International Evaluation Academy, and is a former President of the Italian Evaluation Association. 

Santiago Quintero Suárez 

Santiago is a PhD. candidate and Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Department of Political Economy at King’s College London. His research focuses on the political economy of environmental governance. Combining computational and advanced quantitative methods with qualitative case studies, he examines how bureaucratic and subnational politics shape natural resource governance in contexts marked by increasing fragmentation, politicisation, and relational complexity. While his work primarily centres on Latin America, he has broader interests in the Global South and in comparative analyses between the Global South and North.  

Dr. Jonna Rickardsson

Awarded a year-long fellowship by the Centre

Jonna is a postdoctoral researcher in Economics at Jönköping International Business School and at the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Spatial Economics (CEnSE). Her research interests include political economics, regional science, labor economics, and (im)migration economics. In her research, she consistently adopts a regional perspective when investigating demographic dynamics, such as migration patterns and rural decline, that influence political landscapes, labour markets, and spatial divides. 

Juan Pablo Rodríguez Paredes

Juan Pablo Rodríguez Paredes is a PhD. candidate and early-stage researcher in Economics and Business at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Before returning to academia, he accumulated 18 years of professional experience in omnichannel retail operations leading digital transformation projects in the retail sector. His main interests are in spatial econometrics and impact evaluation techniques to assess the ability of the traditional U.S. retail sector to withstand digital disruptions arising from the rapid growth of e-commerce.

During his stay at the Centre, he developed quantitative methods for evaluating sectoral resilience in response to digital transformation.

Prof. Vassilis Tselios

Awarded a year-long fellowship by the Centre

He is a Professor of Regional Analysis and Policy at the Department of Economic and Regional Development at Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences (Athens, Greece). He holds a PhD at the London School of Economics (LSE). He was an Assistant and Associate Professor of Regional Economics at the University of Thessaly, a Visiting Fulbright Scholar at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, a Lecturer in Economic Geography at the University of Southampton and at Newcastle University, a Researcher at the LSE and at the University of Groningen, and an external consultant at the World Bank. His current research focuses on regional development, public policy, decentralisation, climate change, wellbeing, and natural disasters.

Dr. Enrique Acebo

Returning LSE-Miguel Dols fellow (Spring Term 2023-4)

Enrique Acebo is an Assistant Professor of Management at the University of León, where he earned a PhD Summa Cum Laude in Business Economics. His research focuses on how firms can leverage new products and processes in innovation ecosystems with the purpose of value creation and environmental sustainability.

Dr. Yue Dai

Yue recently graduated with a PhD in Economics from Swansea University, where she researched the cultural, social, and political forces that shape the socioeconomic lives and choices of Chinese individuals, particularly in relation to their consumption behavior.

Building on her PhD project and drawing insights from sociology, her current research interests focus on understanding how inequality originates from societal structures and how it affects socioeconomic progress, using quantitative research methods. Additionally, Yue aims to explore the inherent factors that influence human needs, incentives, motivations which determine socioeconomic choices and outcomes. To gain a deeper understanding why individuals prefer certain options, she also employs mixed research methods, including interviews to provide additional insights and evidence.

Dr. Fernando Gómez Herrero

Fernando Gómez Herrero (PhD Duke University; MA Wake Forest and Salamanca University; BA and Premio de Grado, Salamanca University; MLS Simmons University) is currently a Visiting Research Scholar at the Instituto de Iberoamérica, University of Salamanca, Spain. He has taught mostly in the U.S. (Duke University, Stanford University, Pittsburgh University, Oberlin College, UMass, Boston University, Boston College, Hofstra University, etc.) and the U.K. (University of Birmingham, University of Manchester).

He recently published The (Latin) American Scene, Present and Future (Im-)Perfect (Anthem Press, 2025).

Prof. Astrid Krenz

Awarded a year-long fellowship by the Centre

She is Professor of Economics at the Ruhr University Bochum and an Associate Research Fellow at the University of Sussex in the Digital Futures at Work Research Centre. Her research focuses on new technologies (digitalisation, robots, AI), regional economics and development, firm dynamics (such as location choices, productivity and trade), labour market analyses, and inequality, applying modern techniques from econometrics, data science and machine learning.

Nuria León Pérez

Nuria is a PhD. Candidate in Human Rights, Democracy and International Justice at the University of Valencia. She has been granted the Manuel Serra Foundation scholarship to support her research in the field of procedural law. Her doctoral project examines the protection of human rights, with particular attention to international judicial cooperation, proceedings before the International Criminal Court, and the principle of universal jurisdiction, as well as its interaction with both national and supranational judicial systems.  

Prof. Marta Martínez Matute

She is Professor of Economics at the Ruhr University Bochum and an Associate Research Fellow at the University of Sussex in the Digital Futures at Work Research Centre. Her research focuses on new technologies (digitalisation, robots, AI), regional economics and development, firm dynamics (such as location choices, productivity and trade), labour market analyses, and inequality, applying modern techniques from econometrics, data science and machine learning.

Jinghui Yu

Jinghui is a Doctoral Research Associate and a PhD candidate in Economics at Lancaster University, UK. She specializes in International Macroeconomics, Innovation and Trade. Her research focuses on topics such as global technology diffusion, labor market dynamics, and the role of trade in productivity spillovers. Her PhD thesis develops a novel measure of global technology shocks to examine how trade exposure, borrowing capacity, and labor mobility shape labor market responses and economic gains from technological advancements across countries. Additionally, she investigates technology news shocks using a patent-based world technology news index to analyse how expectations of global innovation influence domestic productivity, trade dynamics, and labor market adjustments.

Dr. José Abad

Awarded a 6-moth fellowship (Autumn and Winter Term)

He holds a Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Exeter, UK. He also completed the Advanced Studies Program in International Economics at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Germany, and specialized in Quantitative Methods at Madrid Polytechnic University, Spain. Additionally, he has a dual bachelor's degree in Law and Finance from ICADE, Spain.

Currently, José is a consultant in the Economic and Market Research Department at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank Group, in Washington, DC. His prior roles include positions at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Goldman Sachs in London, and as Chief Economist at the Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO) in Madrid.

His research focuses on the usability of bank capital buffers and the political economics of subnational public finances. He was awarded the 2022 Federico Prades Prize (Spanish Banking Association) and nominated for the 2023 Rybczynski Prize (Society of Professional Economists, UK).

Dr. Denis Ivanov

Denis Ivanov is an Assistant Professor of Political Economy at Corvinus University of Budapest and a research fellow at Vilnius University. His research interests include socio-economic inequality, populism, the political economy of transition, and quantitative methods. He has received several prestigious awards, including the CKK Research Excellence Award (2024), the Hans Raupach Best Paper Award (2020) at the 12th Joint IOS/EACES Summer Academy on Central and Eastern Europe, and most recently, the EACES Doctoral Award (2024) for the best doctoral dissertation in comparative economic systems. His work has been published in the European Journal of Political Economy, Comparative Economic Studies, and East European Politics.

Prof. Francisco Javier Mato Díaz

Fco. Javier Mato Díaz is a Professor at the Department of Applied Economics in the University of Oviedo. He holds a PhD in Economics from Oviedo, and a MSc in European Social Policy from the LSE. His research focuses on the connections between labour markets, social, and educational policies. He has published on issues like evaluation of training for the unemployed, traineeships for young people, self-employment programmes, immigrants’ labour market outcomes, and the relationship between pandemic quarantines, labour market status and wellbeing.

Christos Papagiannis

Director of the Eteron Institute for Research and Social Change  and a PhD candidate in European Studies, specializing in the Political Economy of Artificial Intelligence, at Maastricht University. A graduate of the Department of Political Science and History at Panteion University, where he was valedictorian and recipient of the IKY Foundation scholarship (Greek State Scholarships). He holds a Master’s degree in International Communication from the Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB) and is currently completing a Master’s in Public Administration at the LSE. His professional experience spans media, including roles as a digital marketing manager and political researcher at the German Press Agency (DPA). 

Dr. Mahir Yazar

Mahir Yazar is a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Climate and Energy Transformation (CET) at the University of Bergen, Norway. His research examines the complexities of backlash amid climate change and energy transitions in Europe, focusing on the rise of populism, global climate policy diffusion, and environmental justice. His work has been supported by funding from H2020 and seed grants from the Climate Social Science Network (CSSN) at Brown University. These studies have been published in leading journals, including Nature Cities, Global Environmental Change, Political Geography, Urban Studies, Climatic Change, and Environmental Science and Policy.

Marcos Esteban Valentinuz

Marcos is a PhD candidate in Social Studies at the National University of the Litoral (Santa Fe, Argentina). His research explores the developmental role of the state in Latin America. In particular, he examines state capacity in the field of industrial policy with a multinivel approach, focusing on Argentina and the Province of Entre Ríos during the twenty-first century.

Daniela-Andreia Damian

Returning LSE-Miguel Dols fellow (Spring Term 2023-4)

She is a PhD candidate in the Geography Department at the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University (Iasi, Romania), and at Côte d'Azur University (Nice, France). Her research explores the connection between human capital formation and academic trends in the European context, with a specific emphasis on the Romanian case. Through her research, she aims to offer insights that can inform policy decisions and contribute to the improvement of education in Romania.

Ana Lleó Bono

Returning LSE-Miguel Dols fellow (Spring Term 2023-4)

Ana is a PhD candidate in Economics at the University of Cambridge. She is specializing in Behavioural, Experimental, and Organizational Economics. Her research spans topics such as productivity, team dynamics, and incentives. In particular, her PhD thesis investigates the incentives’ structure of workers in the Spanish citrus industry to draw policy conclusions to balance quantity vs. quality trade-offs and avoid food waste.

Hasan Küçük

Hasan is a PhD. candidate in the Sociology Department at Gaziantep University. His research interests are in political economy, sociology, and political science. Specifically, his work focuses on developmental challenges among Global North and South, and regional inequalities and social justice. In his research, Hasan focuses on global and local firms' power asymmetries, and how global production networks affect social and economic welfare.

Federico Zampollo

Federico is a PhD student at Gran Sasso Science Institute. In his research, he investigates the interaction between local institutional quality and the geographical distribution of economic activities across Italy.

Dr. Juan de Lucio

Returning LSE-Miguel Dols fellow (Spring Term 2022-3, Autumn Term 2023-4)

Juan de Lucio is a Professor at the Universidad de Alcalá – UAH and main researcher of the high-performance research group I4. He has an extensive record of teaching in public and private universities and experience in research in different institutions such as FEDEA, the Spanish Chamber of Commerce and the Bank of Spain.

He is specialized in the field of applied economics analysis.

Dr. Irakli Barbakadze

Irakli Barbakadze is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for Business Research at Cambridge Judge Business School. He is involved in the POPBACK project, which studies how populist governments increase their political power by undermining the rule of law in the areas of the labor market and corporate governance. Currently, Irakli investigates how populist governments affect labor regulation and shareholder protection in a multi-country setup. He obtained a PhD in Management from Henley Business School, University of Reading and his dissertation investigates the causes and consequences of firms' corporate political activities. In particular, Irakli studies how firms engage in political activities (such as political connections and lobbying) and how these political activities affect firm-level outcomes. Currently, Dr. Barbakadze is working on lobbying practices in the UK using the novel data of ministerial meetings between interest groups and government officials.

Clara Dallaire-Fortier

Clara Dallaire-Fortier is a doctoral researcher at the Department of Economic History, Lund University. Her doctoral work focuses on the implications of mine closure on regional vulnerabilities. She locates the research within the fields of economic geography and ecological economics as it raises essential questions on the nature of industrial transition in extractive regions.

She is an economic alumnus of McGill University (BA), Université Paris Sorbonnes Cité (Master, M2), and University of Witwatersrand (MCom) and worked in diverse research institutes and NGOs.

Doglas Nunes de Sousa 

Doglas Nunes de Sousa is a PhD candidate at the Department of Comparative Political Economy at the Europa-Universität Flensburg, Germany. His research interests include the knowledge economy, skills, labour market, technological changes, and regional policy. His current research focuses on the nexus between higher education policies and transformations of the labour market within the scope of the knowledge economy. In particular, he analyses the impact of technological change on higher education and labour market policies in varying regions of Ireland and Spain.

Prof. Burhan Can Karahasan

Burhan Can Karahasan is a Professor in Economics at the MEF University. He is currently also a Research Fellow for the Economic Research Forum (ERF). In 2014 he spent one year as a Visiting Research Fellow at the LSE (Research on South Eastern Europe). Karahasan was also a Visiting Fellow at the University of Barcelona in 2010. Karahasan received his PhD in Economics from Marmara University. He received his BA degree in Economics from Istanbul University and also holds a MA degree in Economics and Finance from Boğaziçi University. His main area of research is economic development and regional economics. Karahasan received the PhD Award of Turkish Economic Association in 2010 and the Ibn Khaldun Research Prize of Middle East and Economic Association in 2013. His research has been supported by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, the Economic Research Forum and the UK Research and Innovation Fund. He is the co-editor of three books on Turkish economy and has book chapters and articles on regional and development economics.

Dr. Giacomo Rella

Awarded a 6-moth fellowship (Autumn and Winter Term)

Giacomo Rella is a postdoctoral researcher at Roma Tre University and an associated researcher with the GC Wealth Project at the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality, City University of New York. He holds a PhD in Economics from the Universities of Siena, Pisa, and Florence, and has held visiting positions at Gent University, University of Massachusetts in Boston, and City University of New York (Graduate Center).

His research interests lie at the intersection of macroeconomics, monetary and fiscal policy, and inequality. Currently, his research primarily focuses on examining the distributional consequences of macroeconomic policies and investigating the impact of shocks to natural resource sectors on local fiscal policy.

Prof. Min Zhang

Min Zhang is an Associate Professor of Economics at the Business School at Soochow University. She completed her PhD in Economics at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou and has published her research in journals such as the Regional Studies, Journal of Regional Science and the Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society. Her current research interests include government institutions, social capital, drivers of firm and regional innovation, population aging, amenities, fiscal policy and regional inequality.

Dr. Pedro Fierro-Zamora

Awarded a 9-month fellowship by the Centre (starting in Winter Term 2022/23)

Pedro Fierro is an assistant professor at Adolfo Ibañez University and an adjunct researcher at the Millennium Nucleus for the Study of Politics, Public Opinion and Media in Chile (Nucleo-MEPOP). He is also a researcher at P!ensa Foundation.

Before completing his PhD in Communication at the University of Navarra, he worked as a pre-doctoral visiting researcher at Universidad Pompeu Fabra and Digital UNAV. His research is focused on digital politics and territory, publishing articles in different journals, such as Technology in Society, New Media & Society, and Social Science Computer Review.

Jaime Gimeno Ribes

Jaime is a Civil Engineer and a PhD candidate in Economics at the University of Valencia (Spain).  His research focuses on the implications of behavioral biases for household consumption, for the transmission of monetary and fiscal policy, as well as for business cycle dynamics.

Costanza Giannantoni

Returning LSE-Miguel Dols fellow (Spring Term 2022-3)

She is a PhD Candidate in Economics at Department of Economics and Law, Sapienza University of Rome.

Her research explores how decentralisation policies affect subnational institutions and bureaucratic efficiency and, ultimately, local economic activity.

Tatjana Neuhuber

Tatjana Neuhuber is a Ph.D. candidate at the Vienna University of Technology at the Institute of Spatial Planning. Her broader research interests are the welfare state and its role in alleviating spatial inequalities and achieving spatial justice. In her research, she focuses on the quantitative measurement of social and spatial inequality and how different inequality indicators determine the risks and opportunities for policy interventions.

Prof. Javier Sáez-Fernández

He has a Degree in Economics and Business Administration from the University of Valencia and PhD in Economics from the University of Granada. He is currently Professor and Director of the Department of International and Spanish Economics at the University of Granada. His research work is mainly developed in the lines of monetary and financial economics, social economy and economics of natural resources.

Dr. Silje Haus-Reve

She is an Associate Professor and the Head of the Department of Innovation, Management, and Marketing at the Business School of the University of Stavanger. Her research focuses on innovation, regional development, and policy, drawing on insights from innovation studies and economic geography. Her particular interest lies in examining how knowledge and skills empower firms to innovate and drive regional development.

José Joaquín Luque García

He is a pre-doctoral researcher with an FPI
contract at the University of Málaga. He specialises in Economic History. His main line of research revolves around the gas industry in Latin Europe. In this way, he analyses, through specialised gas newspapers and the documentation generated by the main gas associations, how the knowledge and techniques of this industry circulated between France, Spain, Italy and Portugal, without losing sight of the advances and expansion of British gas. In this way, his main contribution to the history of energy is the cataloguing, systematisation and analysis of the written press specialising in this field and of the main companies operating in the sector. Finally, it is worth mentioning his participation in the Spanish Government's Project of Excellence 'Gas in Latin Europe: a comparative and global perspective (1818-1945)', PID2020-112844GB-I00.

Dr. Ana-Maria Opria

She is an assistant professor at the Department of Geography, Faculty of Geography and Geology, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania.

During her PhD studies, she focused on assessing the impact of the LEADER Programme and the role of Local Action Groups in the sustainable development of the Romanian countryside.

Her research interest is oriented towards the field of Human Geography. Currently, her research focuses on aspects related to sustainable development, with a particular attention on topics such as: management of European and national funding programs, inequalities in the distribution of funds for sustainable development, factors leading to different performances of rural communities in absorbing financial support.

Javier Padilla

He is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the City University of New York (CUNY). He holds a master’s degree in philosophy and public Policy from the LSE. His research focuses on the fate of authoritarian elites in Latin American and South European democracies and how political parties are perceived on the left-right dimension. 

Zhuoying You

Zhuoying You is currently 3^rd-year PhD candidate in the Department of Management, Strategy and Innovation (MSI), Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) at KU Leuven. Her research interests include regional innovation, environmental sustainability, and international business. Prior to her PhD project, she earned an MSc in Business Strategy and Innovation Management from the University of Southampton.

Dr. Chiara Burlina

She is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics and Management, University of Padova.

Her research interests lie at the intersection of Applied Microeconomics, Regional Economics, Economic Geography, and Institutions. Her research specifically explores how different economic factors impact the development of regions, based on a quantitative approach.

Dr. Richard Huddleson / Riocárd Ó hOddail

He is a postdoctoral researcher in Catalan Language and Culture at University College Dublin. His research is part of the project 'Youth Engagement in European Language Preservation' (YEELP), which is funded by the European Research Council and based in Scoil na Gaeilge, an Léinn Cheiltigh agus an Bhéaloidis.

Dr. Wioletta Kilar

She is an assistant professor at the Department of Entrepreneurship and Spatial Management as well as the Director of the Institute of Geography of the Pedagogical University of Krakow.

Her research focuses on the processes of transformation of industrial spatial structures in various spatial systems; the formation and functioning of enterprises (especially multinational corporations); factors of location, innovation and development of multinational corporations and their branches.

Gonzalo Reguera-Zaratiegui

He is a doctoral researcher at I-COMMUNITAS - Institute for Advanced Social Research and belongs to the research group “Rural sociology, mobilities and social research” of the Public University of Navarre.

His research focuses on socio-territorial cohesion and mobility.

Elena Renzullo

She is a fourth-year PhD Candidate in Economics at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. During her PhD she visited the Department of Regional Science & Economic Geography of the Gran Sasso Science Institute and worked as a short-term consultant for the World Bank Group.

Her research interest lies at the intersection of Public Economics, Political Economics, and Regional Economics. Her PhD dissertation investigates the relationship between local electoral outcomes in Southern Italy and European Cohesion Policy. 

Prof. Pablo de Andrés Alonso

He is Professor of Finance and head of the Finance Department at the Autonoma University of Madrid. His research interests range between corporate governance, corporate finance and real options. His interest in corporate governance started early in his career, as he was awarded the European Investment Bank Prize for young researchers (1997).

Lately, his research interests are toward start-up finance (digital) strategies.

Dr. Paulino Montes Solla

Paulino is Assistant Professor of Fundamentals of Economic Analysis at the University of A Coruña where he has been teaching since 2019. He is also a senior researcher at the Jean Monnet Research Group on Competition and Regional Development in the European Union (GCD) where he has held the position of manager since 2007 to 2021.

Cristina Carrillo Pulido 

Cristina is a doctoral researcher in Economics, Business and Law within the research line of Sectoral Economics and Development, and a member of the Applied Economics Research Group of the University of Jaén.

In addition, she has been working for several years in companies as a business consultant to strengthen the business fabric leading to more innovative, intelligent and sustainable business management models. She also holds a MSc Economic and Territorial Development and a BA Business Management from the University of Jaén.

Paloma Alonso Stuyck 

Paloma holds a PhD in Psychology and is an Associate Professor at the International University of Catalonia.

At the Cañada Blanch Centre LSE, she designed a workshop for university teachers, with the aim that they teach in their disciplines to read the language of nature.

Diego Loras Gimeno

Diego is a doctoral researcher and lecturer at Comillas Pontifical University. His research focuses on how the urban-rural gap affects inequality and poverty in Spain.

In addition, he works as a Parliamentary Assistant at the Spanish Congress of Deputies.

José Carlos Tenorio Maciá

Doctoral researcher at the Jean Monnet Chair of the University of Alicante, in the Department of Contemporary Humanities. His research focuses on the British European policy from 1945 onwards, with special attention to the way the Spanish press have covered the difficult relationship between Britain and the European project during this period.