all research articles and policy papers to which i contributed to.
Peer-Reviewed Articles
Commuting Time and the Gender Gap in Labor Market Participation (with Jordi Jofre-Monseny and Lídia Farré, Journal of Economic Geography)
In this article, we investigate the contribution of increasing travel times to the persistent gender gap in labor market participation. In doing so, we estimate the effect of commuting times on the labor supply of men and women in the USA using microdata from the censuses of the last two decades. To address endogeneity concerns, we adopt an instrumental variables approach that exploits the shape of cities as an exogenous source of variation for travel times. Our estimates indicate that a 10-min increase in commuting time decreases the probability of married women participating in the labor market by 4.4 percentage points. In contrast, the estimated effect on men is small and statistically insignificant. When exploring potential mechanisms behind the gender asymmetry in our results, we do not find evidence that differences in labor market productivity within couples contribute to the larger penalty of commuting times on women. However, we do find that the negative effect on women increases with the number of children and is larger among those originating from countries with more gendered social norms. Based on this evidence, we conclude that in a context of increasing commuting costs the presence of gender norms that attribute to women the role of main caregivers may prevent gender convergence.
Working Papers
Assessing the Impact of EU Digital Interventions (2021-2027): A Dynamic Spatial General Equilibrium Approach (with Pablo Casas, Tryfonas Christou, Abián García Rodríguez, Nicholas Lazarou, Montserrat López Cobo, Simone Salotti, Serena Signorelli & Carlos Torrecilla – R&R Economic Modelling)
This paper examines the macroeconomic effects of digital investments in the European Union during the 2021–2027 period. Using a dynamic spatial multi-country and multi-sector general equilibrium framework calibrated for all EU Member States, we analyse how different forms of digital interventions, such as public infrastructure investment, firm-level digitalisation, and skills development, affect the macroeconomy of EU27. The analysis draws on a novel dataset that covers approximately €175 billion of planned investments financed through five major EU programmes. Results show that digital investments have a positive and lasting impact on output, employment, as well as on capital accumulation and household consumption across the Union, revealing an interesting price-competitiveness channel for net exports. The inclusion of cross-border digital spillovers further amplifies these effects, suggesting that improvements in digital connectivity and infrastructure generate benefits beyond national economies.
The Spatial Origins of Gender Roles
This paper documents the short and long run effects of the spatial distribution of settlements on female labor force participation. I argue that dispersed settlements presented smaller mobility costs that encouraged female workforce participation. To tackle endogeneity, I rely on the Iberian Reconquest as an instrument for settlement patterns. Using 1887 Census data for Spain, I find that women were more prone to work in dispersed territories, in addition to present lower fertility rates and late marriage behavior. Today, these dispersed areas present also stronger female workforce attachment. They also present greater occupational status and smaller share of women devoted to domestic work. I document that individuals living in dispersed areas present more egalitarian gender views today. I also show that internal immigrant women originating from dispersed territories tend to participate more in the labor market and work longer hours. All in all, this evidence suggests that the cultural transmission of gender attitudes, originating in a short term event, helps to explain gender disparities in the labor market today.
Work In Progress
Skills Bottlenecks (with Alice Bertoletti, Alicia de Quinto, Federico Christmann & Marie Lalanne)
This paper analyses the alignment between educational curricula and labor market demand in terms of skills requirements across the different regions within countries members of the European Union (EU-27) and the United Kingdom (UK). Using microdata on syllabi from tertiary education institutions and online job advertisements (OJAs), we develop a Skill Alignment Index (SAI) that contrasts skill profiles obtained from higher education institutions (retrieved using Text Analysis techniques) with skill requirements obtained from job postings. Our results show great disparities in terms of skill alignment between educational content and job hiring at the regional level in Europe, which could be driven by idiosyncratic factors such as the institutional framework of the university system, the sectoral composition of the economy, and the dynamics of the labor market.
Policy Publications
Digitalisation Policy
Casas, P., Christou, T., Garcia Rodriguez, A., Lazarou, N., Lopez Cobo, M., Salotti, S., Signorelli, S., Torrecillas Jodar, J., & Torrecilla Salinas, C. (2025). The macroeconomic impact and insights of EU digital investment: Territorial Development Insights Series. Publications Office of the European Union. https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2760/4970225. Link
Torrecillas Jodar, J., & Nepelski, D. (2025). Update of mapping of EU funds to Digital Decade targets 2021–2027. Publications Office of the European Union. https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2760/4123945. Link
Signorelli, S., Torrecillas Jodar, J., & Papazoglou, M. (2024). Mapping EU level funding instruments 2021–2027 to Digital Decade targets (M. Lopez Cobo, Ed.). Publications Office of the European Union. https://doi.org/10.2760/45054. Link
Torrecillas Jodar, J., Papazoglou, M., & Signorelli, S. (2024). Methodology to aggregate Member States’ Digital Decade targets at European Union level (M. Lopez Cobo, Ed.). Publications Office of the European Union. https://doi.org/10.2760/433497. Link
Papazoglou, M., Torrecillas Jodar, J., Cardona, M., Calza, E., Vazquez-Prada Baillet, M., & Righi, R. (2023). Mapping EU level funding instruments to Digital Decade targets (M. Lopez Cobo & G. De Prato, Eds.). Publications Office of the European Union. https://doi.org/10.2760/986930. Link
Torrecillas Jodar, J., Papazoglou, M., Cardona, M., Vazquez-Prada Baillet, M., Calza, E., & Righi, R. (2023). Methodology to project Digital Decade trajectories towards 2030 (M. Lopez Cobo & G. De Prato, Eds.). Publications Office of the European Union. https://doi.org/10.2760/442136. Link
Digital Innovation Hubs
Carpentier, E., Nepelski, D., & Torrecillas Jodar, J. (2025). Advancing AI adoption: Strengths and gaps in the European Digital Innovation Hubs Network: Insights from the first generation of EDIHs. Publications Office of the European Union. https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2760/4776421. Link
Digital Ecosystems
Calza, E., Dalla Benetta, A., Kostić, U., Mitton, I., Moraschini, M., Vazquez-Prada Baillet, M., Cardona, M., Papazoglou, M., Righi, R., Torrecillas Jodar, J., Lopez Cobo, M., Cira, P., & De Prato, G. (2023). Analytical insights into the global digital ecosystem (DGTES) (EUR 31538 EN). Publications Office of the European Union. https://doi.org/10.2760/811932. Link
R&D and Productivity
Benages, E., Mínguez, C., Pascual, F., Robledo, J. C., Salamanca, J., Papazoglou, M., Righi, R., Torrecillas Jodar, J., & Vazquez-Prada Baillet, M. (2022). The PREDICT dataset methodology. Publications Office of the European Union. https://doi.org/10.2760/33739. Link