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. 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 contributes to 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. 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), and a number of general audience and specialised journals in economics (e.g., Journal of the European Economic Association, Economica, Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Economic Policy), and social science (e.g, Risk Analysis, Social Science and Medicine, Public Choice, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society A).

Joan has earned a BSc in Economics (UB), a BSc Law, and a BSc in political science and sociology. He holds 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.