Prize Winners

Curriculum Vitae

Ph.D. in Economics. ICREA Researcher. Professor of Economics, Pompeu Fabra University

She is a Research Professor at BSE; director of IPEG; and director of the Master’s in Economics program at BGSE and UPF.

As a researcher, she has made significant contributions in the fields of the determinants of armed conflict, political economy, and economic development, using methodologies based on historical experiences and “big data.” Her most important contribution has been the development of a polarization index applicable to discrete attributes (ethnicity, religion, etc.).

In the field of political economy, she has analyzed the influence of political leaders’ human capital on economic development. The database on leaders’ education, constructed for her publications, has become the standard among researchers who

study issues related to political leadership. Another recent project develops a methodology for measuring inequality in areas with poor statistics or conflict using information from satellites, which will make it possible for the first time to obtain a highly detailed geographic measure of the distribution of poverty and inequality for areas smaller than 1 km². This data will also allow for a reexamination of many of the classic questions related to inequality and development. Another recent line of research focuses on measuring inequality in Spain using “big data” and artificial intelligence.

Jury ruling

The jury of the Rei Jaume I has unanimously decided to award Marta Reynal in Economics for his contributions to the study of the determinants of armed conflict, political economy, and economic development using methodologies based on historical experiences and “big data.” His most significant contribution is the development of a polarization index applicable to discrete attributes (ethnicity, religion), etc. In the field of political economy, he has analyzed the influence of political leaders’ human capital on economic development. His recent research addresses the importance of the human capital of the early colonizers of Latin America and their original institutions in explaining economic development. His second major line of research at present is the analysis of development, conflict, and inequality using machine learning techniques