Mariana Tavares 

I am an Assistant Professor of Economics at Forward College (FwC), a recognised teaching centre of the University of London. FwC offers world class Bachelor’s programs designed and accredited by the London School of Economics and King’s College London. At FwC, I am also head of Economics.

In 2021/22, I was PostDoc researcher and teaching assistant at Católica Lisbon School.

I defended my PhD thesis entitled The Magic Number: Economic Insights on Achievement Test Scores in March 2022. I was a PhD candidate at the School of Business and Economics of Maastricht University - Macroeconomics, International and Labour Economics department. 

My PhD research in Economics has a special focus on Education. I mainly work with microdata, at student and question-student levels. My work leverages paradata extracted from achievement tests, with the goal to answer questions on skill formation and persistent achievement gaps. I performed my research under the supervision of Professors Lex Borghans and Ron Diris. 

At SBE-UM, I had the opportunity to teach several courses, from introductory economics to electives. I am a very enthusiastic tutor, and you may find student grades of my teaching skills under the Teaching tab of my webpage. In the academic years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021, SBE-UM awarded me an excellence token of appreciation.  

During my PhD, I have further developed my analytical and econometric skills and improved my academic writing skills. I am quite familiar with Stata, and I have been working with microdata for almost 9 years. Combining research and teaching duties can sometimes be challenging, making good planning vital. My research is my priority, but I always find time to support my students. 

Before my PhD, I worked at the Economics and Research Department of Banco de Portugal (Public Finance and Structural Studies division). Most of the work I developed relates to International Trade, namely EU trade, and the Portuguese labour market. I dealt with Eurostat micro data sets, UN Comtrade, Chelem (CEPII), disaggregated tariff data, and labour market micro data sets (Quadros de Pessoal). I was also part of a project on over-education among the Portuguese labour force. This experience deepened my understanding of trade and international relations as well as improved my analytical and data management skills.