José Montalbán Castilla holds a PhD in Economics from the Paris School of Economics. He is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI) at Stockholm University. He is a CESifo Network Affiliate and a Senior Fellow in Opportunities and Social Mobility at EsadeEcPol. His research focuses on the economics of education, particularly on evaluating how education policies affect the efficiency and equity of school systems. He has published in international journals such as The Economic Journal and Economics of Education Review. Among other distinctions, he received the First Prize in the Economics Doctorate from the Chancellerie des Universités (France) in 2020, the Extraordinary Bachelor’s Award in 2013, and the Community of Madrid Excellence Scholarship in 2009. He has held visiting positions at University of California Irvine, the London School of Economics and the Bank of Spain. He holds a BA in Economics from the Complutense University of Madrid, an MSc in Economic Analysis from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, and an MSc in Public Policy and Development from the Paris School of Economics.