Carolina Maria de Novais

Carolina Maria de Novais
Name	Carolina Maria de Novais
Birth date	1982
Birth place	Porto, Portugal
Occupation	Economist, Researcher, Professor
Alma mater	University of Porto; London School of Economics
Known for	Labor economics; migration studies; demographic analysis

Carolina Maria de Novais is a Portuguese economist and academic known for her work on labor markets, migration, and demographic change. She has held positions at major European universities and research institutes, contributing to policy debates in Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the European Union. Her interdisciplinary approach connects empirical microeconometrics with comparative studies across Southern Europe and Latin America.

Early life and education

Born in Porto, Carolina Maria de Novais completed early schooling in Porto, Portugal and pursued undergraduate studies at the University of Porto. At the University of Porto she studied under scholars linked to the Instituto de Ciências Sociais and worked with researchers who had affiliations with the European Commission research networks. She later obtained graduate degrees from the London School of Economics and participated in seminars at the Centre for Economic Policy Research and the Institute for Fiscal Studies. During doctoral training she engaged with faculty associated with the European University Institute and exchanged with scholars from the Universidad de Salamanca and the Università Bocconi. Her doctoral dissertation drew on datasets maintained by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and comparative panels from the World Bank and the United Nations statistical divisions.

Career and professional work

Carolina Maria de Novais has held academic appointments at the University of Lisbon, the University of Porto, and visiting positions at the London School of Economics and the University of Oxford. She has been a research fellow at the Instituto de Estudos Superiores Financeiros e Fiscais and collaborated with the Banco de Portugal on labor market forecasting. Her policy work includes consultancy for the European Commission Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, projects with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and advisory roles for the Portuguese Ministry of Labour and the European Central Bank. She serves on editorial boards of journals connected to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the IZA Institute of Labor Economics, and the Journal of Population Economics, and has been a member of research consortia funded by the Horizon 2020 programme and the European Research Council.

Her professional trajectory includes collaborative projects with scholars from the University of Cambridge, the University of Manchester, and the University of California, Berkeley. She has contributed to comparative studies alongside teams from the Universidad de Buenos Aires, the Universidad de Chile, and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. De Novais’ methodological toolkit draws from techniques advanced at the National Bureau of Economic Research workshops, the StataCorp user group, and the Royal Economic Society conferences.

Research and publications

De Novais’ research addresses labor supply, migration flows, family demography, and the effects of fiscal policy on household behavior. Her publications appear in outlets associated with the Journal of Human Resources, the Journal of Labor Economics, the European Economic Review, and policy series from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Key papers analyze labor market participation using panel data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions, cross-national comparisons using the Luxembourg Income Study, and migration analyses employing records from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

She has authored chapters in edited volumes published by the Oxford University Press and the Cambridge University Press, and contributed policy briefs for the European Commission and the International Labour Organization. Collaborative studies with researchers at the Bocconi University, the Sciences Po, and the Stockholm University examine gender gaps in employment, intergenerational mobility, and the demographic impact of international migration. Her empirical work frequently employs instruments and identification strategies discussed in seminars at the Cowles Foundation and the Institute for Advanced Study.

De Novais has also developed open datasets and replication files deposited with research infrastructures such as the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research and the Harvard Dataverse. She presents findings at conferences organized by the American Economic Association, the European Association of Labour Economists, and the Population Association of America.

Awards and honors

Her scholarly contributions have been recognized with fellowships from the European Research Council and grants from the Horizon 2020 programme. She received an early-career award from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and research prizes conferred by the Portuguese Economic Journal and the Instituto de Alta Estudos. De Novais was a recipient of visiting scholar awards from the Fulbright Program and a distinguished visiting fellowship at the Centre for Economic Policy Research.

She has been shortlisted for article awards from the European Economic Review and received honorable mentions in competitions run by the National Science Foundation collaborative networks and the IZA Institute of Labor Economics.

Personal life and activism

Outside academia, De Novais participates in public debates on migration policy, social protection, and demographic challenges, engaging with platforms linked to the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, and civil society organizations such as Oxfam and Amnesty International. She has spoken at public forums hosted by the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian and the Belém Cultural Center and collaborates with non-governmental initiatives including Médicos do Mundo and the Refugee Studies Centre at the University of Oxford. De Novais is active in mentoring programs affiliated with the Society of Labor Economists and supports outreach projects in partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration.

Category:Portuguese economists Category:Living people