Miguel Almunia, a Ph.D. student in Economics, has been named the 2008-2009 Shapiro Fellow.

See personal website (2012)

Almunia is originally from Madrid, Spain.  He has been living in the United States for two years, in Boston, where he did an MPA in International Development at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. 

His primary research interest is economic development, particularly political economy and economics of institutions. He intends to focus on Africa.  Recently, he was working for a Yale economics professor on several research projects in Peru, running randomized experiments evaluating microfinance projects to see whether they were effective or not.   On the research level, he was investigating whether these microfinance programs are effective.  On a human level, Almunia says, he was learning what these communities thought about NGOs that come to try to help them in general, as well as what they thought about this particular program.

Beyond economic theory, Almunia has a talent for cooking. He has revealed that Spanish omelets are his specialty.