Mariajose Silva-Vargas

Mariajose works as a Senior Research and Policy Manager at J-PAL Europe. In this role, she anchors the office's partnership with the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER), the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign Affairs and LuxDev. She also provides support to development actors, helping them to apply and generate evidence that informs development policy. Moverover, she is a Postdoctoral Researcher at LISER.

Mariajose obtained her PhD at the School of Business and Economics at Maastricht University with the thesis: “Beyond Boundaries: Integrating Refugees and Consolidating Farmland. Essays in Experimental and Development Economics”. She was a Robert S. McNamara Fellow at DIME-World Bank in 2021-2022, and she has also visited in several periods the IIES at Stockholm University and GPRL at Northwestern University.

Previously, Mariajose worked in Uganda and Tanzania, managing impact evaluations on gender, labour markets and governance for the World Bank and Innovations for Poverty Action. She also conducted a research study in the Ivory Coast on an UN program related to ex-combatants' reintegration through agriculture. Her passion for policy and research has led her to merge her photography skills, working as a documentary photographer on various projects for the World Bank Development Impact blog, TechnoServe and others. She was also featured in Photo VOGUE.

Mariajose holds a Master's degree in Agricultural Economics and Rural Development from Ghent University & Humboldt University of Berlin and a Bachelor's degree in Political Science from Roma Tre University. She is a Bolivian citizen and naturalized-Italian citizen.