Best PhD thesis 2020 in Economics from the Chancellerie des Universités de Paris: José Montalban 1st Prize and Laura Khoury 2nd Prize

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The best Phd award from the Chancellerie des Universités, which represents fifteen (15) universities and six (6) major higher education schools from d’Île-de-France (Paris), are awarded each year in December. This award rewards scientific excellence in the field of economics and management as well as law, political science, medicine, pharmacy, literature and science.
The awards in “Economic Sciences and Management” was granted to José Montalban (PPD 2015, PhD 2019 – first prize) and Laura Khoury (PPD 2014, PhD 2019 – second prize). Congratulations to both of them!

José Montalban is an assistant professor at the Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI) at the University of Stockholm in Sweden.

Specialised in the economics of education, labour economics and applied econometrics, José Montalban completed his PhD at the Paris School of Economics under the supervision of Julien Grenet.
His thesis topic was “Addressing Inequalities in Education: need-based grants, gender differences and school choice”. Between 2017 and 2019, José was a visiting doctoral student at the CEP-LSE (Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics) and at the Bank of Spain.

José Montalban received several awards such as a grant from the Bank of Spain, the prize for job market papers in economics (Nada es Gratis), the HSS collaboration fund (with Almudena Sevilla) at Queen Mary University of London as well as two scholarships : one in the framework of the European EDP programme and the second one as part of the PSE mobility scholarship.

In 2015, José Montalban graduated from the Master PPD of PSE, where he also obtained two distinctions: the grant from the Fundación Ramon Areces and the second prize for the best article for young researchers from the AEDE.

Laura Khoury is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Public economiy, Labour and Crime Economics at the Centre for Experimental Research on Fairness, Inequality and Rationality, at the Norwegian School of Economics in Bergen, Norway.

Doctor in Economics since 2019, Laura Khoury was previously awarded several prizes at this second Chacellerie Prize for her thesis “Optimal Unemployment Insurance and Employment Behaviour” under the supervision of Luc Behaghel : the best PhD award in Economics from the French Economic Association (AFSE) ; and the second prize of the best PhD award on the labour market awarded by the French unemployment insurance (Pôle Emploi).

Laura Khoury did her PhD at PSE-Ecole d’économie de Paris under a CIFRE contract with Unédic (national interprofessional union for employment in industry and commerce). At the same time, Laura Khoury was affiliated to the PSE Labour Chair and worked with Denis Cogneau on the Afristory project at Liegey-Muller-Pons and at the Institute of Public Policy (IPP).
Laura Khoury’s thematic specialisation began as early as her PPD master’s degree with the writing of her dissertation on “An evaluation of the insurance and redistribution functions of unemployment benefits in France” (under the supervision of Antoine Bozio).