I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Economics of the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Granada (Spain). I hold a Ph.D. in Economics and a Prize for Doctoral Thesis in Social Sciences (1999) from the same University. I serve as Director of the Research Group epic-SEJ393 “Public Economic and Globalisation”, at the University of Granada.
I am an Associate Research Fellow at the Camilo Dagum/Tuscan Universities Research Centre on Advanced Statistics for the Equitable and Sustainable Development – ASESD (Italy). I am Vice-President of Membership and Regional Affairs for ISQOLS. I serve as Co-Editor in the journal Social Indicators Research and as Editor of the ASTI book series of Springer.
I have been a Visiting Research Fellow at the National University of Ireland in Galway (in the Institute for Lifecourse and Society, ILAS), the University of Siena in Italy (Dept. of Economics and Statistics), the University of Economics in Bratislava (Slovakia), and the University of Reading (Dept. of Economics) in the United Kingdom.
My interest in investigating how public policies could improve people's quality of life was undoubtedly reinforced when I won the Best Paper Award at the Progressive Economics Forum in 2014, organised by the European Parliament (Brussels), with the paper: “A Progressive Approach to the Measurement of Regional Performance in the European Union”. In this paper, I argued that GDP per capita cannot be an indicator of well-being (“Beyond GDP”). Since then, my research interests have focused on subjective well-being, subjective poverty, economic inequalities, sustainable development, and the construction of composite indicators. A key element of my research is the importance of self-report measures in informing public policies aimed at improving people's well-being. I have been working on these topics under the umbrella of several research projects obtained in a competitive call.
2. How has being a part of ISQOLS benefited your work/research?
Since joining as a member and participating in my first ISQOLS Conference in 2019, I have gained many benefits from the association, both professionally and personally. Contact with colleagues from different disciplines (economics, psychology, sociology, etc.) and from across the world who research similar topics has allowed me to better understand how different methodologies approach research problems. I really like the multidisciplinary nature of the participants and the activities of ISQOLS. In addition to presenting my research at conferences, I have also helped organise some special sessions, participated in online events, and delivered the "Psychology of Wellbeing" course during the pandemic. In all these activities, I have found colleagues who have inspired me to keep going. This has been very important to me because, a few years ago, few economists worked in the field of quality of life. I have also involved junior and senior researchers, with whom I collaborate regularly, in ISQOLS activities. Personally, I greatly enjoy collaborating with ISQOLS, especially at conferences, because the atmosphere is very friendly and supportive. Likewise, sharing time and conversations with people from so many different countries and cultures is a very enriching experience.
3. ISQOLS SIG Groups -which group(s) does your research most closely relate to?
