Luís Catela Nunes

Luís Catela Nunes is a Full Professor at Nova School of Business and Economics (Nova SBE), where he has held leadership roles including President of the Pedagogical Council, Deputy Dean for Research, and Head of its Research Unit. He launched the Social Sciences DataLab in 2017 and co-leads the Economics of Education Knowledge Center, coordinating projects such as ‘Is grade repetition beneficial for low-achieving students?’ and ‘Teacher’s impact on student learning’. His research focuses on applied econometrics and education economics, with publications in prestigious journals like Applied Economics and Environmental & Resource Economics. His work bridges empirical analysis with policy design, addressing educational inequality, environmental valuation, and urban dynamics. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Illinois (1994) and an Agregação from Universidade Nova de Lisboa (2014).

Education:

• 2014: Agregação in Economics, Universidade Nova de Lisboa
• 1994: PhD in Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• 1991: MSc in Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• 1987: BSc in Economics, Universidade Nova de Lisboa

Research Focus:

• Economics of Education: Policy evaluation on school performance, grade repetition, and teacher impacts
• Environmental Economics: Citizen preferences for nature protection and tourism impacts
• Applied Econometrics: Methodological contributions to policy analysis

Publications Trends: Recent work emphasizes education policy evaluation (e.g., immigrant student integration, curriculum effects) and environmental valuation (crowdfunding mechanisms, wildfire tourism impacts). His interdisciplinary approach combines econometric rigor with real-world policy applications.

Grants & Projects: Coordinated projects on educational inequality, teacher effectiveness, and environmental policy design. Active in institutional initiatives like DataLab and the Economics of Education Knowledge Center.

Labs/Teams: Social Sciences DataLab (Nova SBE), Economics of Education and Environmental Economics research teams.