Yale Economist Eduardo Dávila Wins Banco Sabadell Foundation Award for Economic Research
Eduardo Dávila has been awarded the 23rd Banco Sabadell Foundation Award for Economic Research, a prize recognizing the best Spanish economist under 40. In their announcement, Banco Sabadell praised Dávila’s innovative contributions to financial economics and the economics of information and market imperfections.
This year’s panel of judges, chaired by Professor Teresa Garcia-Milà, highlighted Dávila’s application of mechanism design (also known as implementation theory), as it provides “an innovative approach enabling improved regulation of the financial sector.” She added that “recognising market imperfections, his research explores which financial regulations offer the optimal balance between the positive and negative effects on different people and businesses.”
I am truly honored to receive the Banco Sabadell Foundation Award and to join the distinguished group of past winners. We must remember that economics is unique in its ability to provide a rigorous framework for assessing policies and understanding their societal impact, and I am grateful to the foundation and the prize jury for recognizing my research in this area. This prize reinforces my commitment to advancing the understanding of financial, regulatory, and macroeconomic policies and their effects on society.
— Eduardo Dávila, Assistant Professor of Economics
Josep Oliu, Chairman of Banco Sabadell and its Foundation, praised the normative approach of Dávila’s work, noting that it "develops theoretical frameworks for the evaluation and design of public policy."
Dávila's research focuses on finance and macroeconomics, with a particular emphasis on policy and welfare issues. He has explored topics such as pecuniary externalities, corporate and financial transaction taxation, and the optimal design of financial regulations and monetary policy.
“My work seeks to design a general framework for attributing the welfare gains or losses produced by different policies in dynamic, stochastic, and disaggregated economies with different frictions,” said Professor Dávila. “In particular, one of my most recent research projects introduces a new method to compare the implications of policies that impact multiple generations, such as pension policies, educational policies or those related to climate change. The ultimate objective of this new line of research is to review the existing methods used to evaluate public policies.”
Dávila has received the Top Finance Graduate Award, the NSF CAREER Award, and the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship for his research work. The panel of judges of the Banco Sabadell Foundation award underlined the “huge international prestige” associated with Professor Dávila’s many publications.
Professor Dávila is the second Yale economist to receive the award. Gerard Padrò i Miquel, the Samuel C. Park Jr. (B.A. 1925) Professor of Economics and Political Science at Yale, received the award in 2013.
About the Banco Sabadell Foundation Award for Economic Research
Established in 2001, the award aims to support the careers of young researchers and serve as a seal of excellence for their work. It is part of the foundation's commitment to recognizing top-tier research talent and highlighting the impact of their work on societal progress and well-being. According to Chairman Oliu, “The Banco Sabadell Foundation awards are a form of recognition, at national and international level, of the work of our researchers, giving them the visibility they deserve.” The award ceremony will take place on October 8 at an event held at the Banco Sabadell center in Oviedo.
About the Banco Sabadell Foundation
The mission of the Banco Sabadell Foundation is to promote culture and the arts, research and education. It was created in 1994 as an embodiment of Banco Sabadell’s commitment to the progress and wellbeing of the population and with the aim of becoming a benchmark and an advocate for change and innovation, serving general interest and social cohesion by acting as a driver of excellence, creativity and innovation, focusing particularly on promoting young talent.