I am an Economist (PhD) working at the interface between research and policymaking. I am interested in how we can use research to design and implement better policies; and how real-world policy challenges inspire us to ask new research questions to expand the scientific frontier. 

Over the past two decades, I have worked as a researcher, lecturer, consultant and public policy adviser for private-sector consulting firms (PwC), international organizations (the European Commission's Joint Research Centre and UNDP), governments (the Prime Minister's Office of Spain and the Presidency of Uruguay), and research institutions and universities (LISER and the University of Antwerp).

My research focuses on how public policies, aggregate shocks and major economic and social transformations affect countries' development and human wellbeing. I am particularly interested in evolution and effects of welfare states (taxes and transfers, including provision of public services); the political economy of redistribution; migration, gender and decarbonization policies; wages and unemployment; as well as in the (multidimensional) measurement of wellbeing, poverty and inequality.

I am currently based in Madrid. Previously, I have lived in Seville, Barcelona, Antwerp, Rotterdam and Montevideo. I have two passports: German and Uruguayan, and I am lucky to have family, friends and colleagues from all over the world. I am fluent in Spanish (native) and English; while I have an intermediate and gradually-improving level of Italian, and basic but willing-to-improve French and Portuguese. 

I am currently affiliated with the University of Antwerp, the EQUALITAS research network and WAPLAC (the Network on Welfare and Policy in Latin America and the Caribbean); while I collaborate with LISER as an external Research Expert.