Joan Costa-Font is an Associate Professor (Reader) at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He has been Harkness Fellow at Harvard University and visiting fellow at Boston College, Oxford University, Paris Dauphine University, and UCL (Economics). In addition to IZA, he collaborates with CESifo as a research fellow.

The core of Joan’s research is on the 'economics of health and ageing', though most of his work extends into political economy and behavioural economics. His wider academic interests revolve around understanding how best to design social protection programs, and especially, the logic behind the social formation of preferences. Most of his research can be regularly found in all the main field journals in health economics (e.g., Journal of Health Economics, Health Economics, American Journal of Health Economics; Social Science and Medicine), and a number of general audience journals (e.g., Journal of the European Economic Association, Economica, Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Oxford Economic Papers, Economic Policy; Journal of the Royal Statistical Society A), alongside journals, focused on policy, health and social sciences.

Joan has earned three undergraduate degrees (BSc, Licenciado) in economics, law, and political science, both an MA in Economics (UPF) and an MSc (Econ) in International Health Policy (LSE, with distinction & best student prize, 2000), as well as a PhD in Economics (UB), followed by a Marie Curie Post-doctoral Fellowship (LSE).

Joan Costa-Font joined IZA as a Research Fellow in December 2017.