Our Team

Iris Lopes-Rafegas holds a BSc in Economics (Pompeu Fabra University), an MRes in Economics (Université Catholique de Louvain), an MSc in Health Economics (City University of London), and a PhD in Economics (City University of London). In her doctoral work, she studied Eating Disorders’ predisposing factors, peer group effects, and impact on adult outcomes such as labour market, relationships and health behaviours.

She is a postdoctoral research fellow in Health Economics at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal). She works on the ORCHESTRA project, a three-year international research project tackling the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The project is funded by the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the ERAvsCORONA Action Plan.

As part of ISGlobal, Iris Lopes-Rafegas is involved in determining socioeconomic and environmental risk factors for SARS-CoV-2, analysing the impact of the pandemic on socioeconomic factors, assessing the health costs of COVID-19 with particular emphasis on delayed health services in fragile populations, and exploring the economic aspects of translation of strategies in LMICs. 

Her research interests lie in applying econometric methods to address health-related questions such as the impact of health shocks on socio-economic indicators, determinants of human behaviour, and mental health.

Lines of research

• Impact Evaluation
• Mental Health
• Health Economics
• Public policy
• Human behaviour