As part of its commitment to society, ESADE is creating a new centre, or ‘think tank’, that will analyse the Spanish economy. The Centre for Economic Policy & Political Economy will propose far-reaching economic reforms and facilitate the general consensus necessary to make such reforms happen. By combining academic rigour and the pragmatism necessary to build consensus, the centre aims to identify what needs to be done (and how) for the Spanish economy to flourish and spread wealth widely.

Antonio Roldán Monés joins ESADE as director of the centre and to manage its launch and development. He will be supported by an advisory board formed of recognised academic, economic, and political experts who are committed to ​​exploring points of view and building spaces of understanding.

In the words of Antonio Roldán: ‘In a time of increasing polarisation and false news, we will work from the new centre to create spaces of consensus based on the best empirical evidence – and to advance specific and politically viable economic reforms’. For this, ‘the centre will aim, from its governing bodies and working teams, to advance the interaction between people from different political groupings with experience in reforms, and with top-level academics from a variety of disciplines’.

Antonio Roldán is an economist who trained at the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, ​​ the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, and the European Institute at the London School of Economics and Political Science (among other universities). 

The Esade Centre for Economic Policy & Political Economy will be located on the ESADE campus in Madrid. Mario Lara, director of ESADE Madrid, commented: ‘the creation of this new centre is part of our initiatives to make Esade in Madrid a meeting place for the business world and civil society. At Esade Madrid we address new challenges with an inclusive and innovative perspective – as well as a humanistic commitment to our society. Esade is promoting the Madrid campus as an academic reference for business professionals and for leading projects that, like this new centre, respond to current challenges. We want to bring knowledge into operations, and advance in the analysis, reflection, and debate on the major challenges of the moment’.

Education, employment, sustainability and institutional regeneration

The work of the centre will focus on priority areas that are essential for the success of nations in the long term: education; future employment; sustainability; and institutional regeneration.

The main output of the centre will be ‘Policy Briefs’ that offer recommendations for politically viable reform. Likewise, a Policy Innovation Lab will be created to bring the best ideas from international debate to Spain.  

The centre will also launch two other lines of work. First, it will create a platform for the improvement of the design and evaluation of public policies that encourage the use of data to improve efficiency in public spending. Secondly, the centre will develop an agenda to ‘protect democracy’ in collaboration with other centres and academic institutions. The aim is to tackle the causes of populism and respond using reasoned debate and evidence.