Economics of Science and Innovation Program

Prof. David Pérez-Castrillo – Program Director

David Pérez-Castrillo is Professor of Economics at the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona. He has a PhD in Economics from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, in Paris. His research interests are in Research and Development, Economics of Information, and Game Theory. He is currently involved in research related with mechanism design and technology policy. Among other duties, he has been president of the Social Science Commission for Research Evaluation for the Catalan Government, General Secretary of the South-European Association of Economic Theory, and Officer of the Executive Committee of the European Association of Research in Industrial Economics.

He has published in leading journals such as American Economic Review, Journal of Economic Theory, Games and Economic Behavior, and Research Policy and obtained the Distinció de la Generalitat de Catalunya for young researchers in 2001, and the ICREA Academia Award. He received the Arrow Prize in Theoretical Economics in 2006. He has been a visiting professor at many universities, such as the University of California, San Diego, the University of Copenhagen, and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.

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Prof. Salvador Barberà – Scientific Director

Salvador Barberà is Professor of Economics at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and a Barcelona GSE Research Professor. He earned a PhD in Economics from Northwestern University (1975). He is a fellow of the Econometric Society, a recipient of the Spanish Research Prize and the Rey Juan Carlos Award in Economics and of a Doctorate Honoris Causa of the Universidad Pablo de Olavide.

As a researcher Prof. Barberà has concentrated in the fields of public economics, incentives, utility and game theory. More specifically, he is an expert in social choice theory, the design of strategy-proof mechanisms, and the analysis of voting procedures. He has co-edited a two-volume Handbook of Utility Theory, and his publications have appeared in Econometrica, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, The Review of Economic Studies, The Journal of Political Economy, The Journal of Economic Theory, Games and Economic Behavior and Social Choice and Welfare, among others. He has also served as director of The Spanish Economic Review and on the boards of other journals, such as Econometrica, Games and Economic Behavior, Mathematical Social Sciences and The Journal of Public Economic Theory.

Prof. Barberà is past-president of the Social Choice and Welfare Society and of the Southern European Economic Association (ASSET). He has been elected to the Council of different learned societies, including the Econometric Society, The Social Choice and Welfare Society and The Society for the Advancement of Game Theory. 

He recently served as General Secretary of Research and Technological Policies in the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (2004-2006). Prior to that, between 2000 and 2004, he was the first director of the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), a foundation created by the Catalan Government in order to consolidate in Catalonia a group of high level scientists of all origins. He was the first program director of the MESI program and has also served as the Vice-Chairman of the Barcelona GSE.

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