Javier G. Polavieja

Predoctoral Fellows

Javier Carrero Rodríguez (MA in Social Sciences, Carlos III-Juan March Institute, 2021) is a predoctoral fellow at the D-Lab, where he has been working as research technician anf fieldwork coordinator since 2018. Javier participated in the development of the latest version of SAdIE 2.0, the software we use in our online field-experiments, and he is currently in charge of its maintenance and fine-tuning as software developer. His academic interests include social stratification, the welfare state, electoral behavior, and political communication. His PhD thesis (supervised by Prof. Javier Polavieja) draws on an in-depth analysis of some of the key mechanisms behind discrimination in the labor market based on ethnicity and gender. Using particularly precise experimental data, it aims to shed light on issues such as distinguishing between taste-based discrimination and statistical discrimination, as well as the origin of gender differences in hiring processes.

Khatia Nadaraia (MA in Social Sciences, Carlos III-Juan March Institute, 2019) is a predoctoral fellow at the D-Lab. Her research interests include early childhood experiences and adult outcomes; social sources of stress and health inequalities; as well as individual perceptual factors that make psychological stress stressful. Specifically, she is interested in which exogenous regularities operate nowadays that create recurrent psychological stress, and thus have severe consequences on population health and well-being. Her PhD thesis (supervised by Prof. Javier Polavieja) draws on the interdisciplinary framework of stress research and investigates the lasting consequences of early childhood material deprivation on self-regulation, and cognition later in life.

Isabel Rodríguez Marín (MSc in Economics, University Carlos III, 2019) is a predoctoral researcher at the Institute of Public Goods and Policies, granted an FPU fellowship by the Spanish Ministry of Universities, and a predoctoral fellow at the D-Lab. She is also a PhD Candidate in Economics at the National University of Distance Education, following a research path on micro-econometrics and causal inference at Programme DEcIDE. Her research interests lie on the analysis of social behaviours and identities based on laboratory, field and survey experiments as well as causal mechanisms linking political behaviours and preferences with socioeconomic characteristics and social norms. Her PhD thesis (supervised by Luis Miller and Mariano Matilla) explores the micro-mechanisms that allow social discrimination and partyism to thrive.

Diego Santamaría (MSc in International Economics, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 2018) is a predoctoral researcher at the Institute of Public Goods and Policies, Spanish National Research Council (IPP-CSIC). He is a PhD student at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid granted by a FPU fellowship by the Spanish Ministry for Universities, and a predoctoral fellow at the D-Lab. His doctoral research (supervised by Luis Miller) combines both experimental and observational methodologies to investigate changes in social behaviour in terms of inequality acceptability, policy preferences, affective polarisation, subjective well-being and mental health.