Dr. Maria Cotofan
Curriculum Vitae
Contact
Lecturer in Economics and Policy (Equivalent to Assistant Professor)
Department of Political Economy, King’s College London
Email: maria.cotofan@kcl.ac.uk
Personal website: https://sites.google.com/view/mariacotofan
Office: 8.13
North East Bush House, 30 Aldwych, London, WC2B 4BG, United Kingdom
Affiliations ______
Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics and Political Science
Wellbeing Research Centre, Oxford University
Tinbergen Institute, Erasmus University
Positions and Education
Department of Political Economy From September 2022
King’s College London
Assistant Professor (Lecturer)
Centre for Economic Performance, LSE April 2020 – August 2022
Research Officer
Erasmus University Rotterdam Sept. 2016 - March 2020
PhD Candidate in Economics
Tinbergen Institute Sept. 2014 - August 2016
MPhil in Economics
Utrecht University Sept.2011- August 2014
BSc Economics and Business Economics
Minor in Social Sciences
Research Visits __
CHE (Monash University) Forthcoming, February 2026
Visiting Researcher
University of Cologne Spring 2019
Visiting Researcher
Columbia University, New York Fall 2018
Visiting Researcher
Research Interests ______
Policy Evaluation, Applied Microeconomics, Behavioral Economics, Labor Economics.
Publications ______
Cotofan, M., & Matakos, K. (2025). Recurring labour market shocks and stated and revealed preferences for redistribution. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 238, 107239.
Clark, A. E., Cotofan, M., & Layard, R. (2024). Do wages underestimate the inequality in workers' rewards? The joint distribution of job quality and wages across occupations. Economica, 91(362), 497-546.
Cotofan, M., Dur, R., & Meier, S. (2024). Does growing up in economic hard times increase compassion? The case of attitudes towards immigration. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 218, 245-262.
Cotofan, M. (2024). Happiness and spatial inequality: past, present, and future. In Encyclopedia of Happiness, Quality of Life and Subjective Wellbeing (pp. 417-423). Edward Elgar Publishing.
Cotofan, M., Cassar, L., Dur, R., & Meier, S. (2023). Macroeconomic conditions when young shape job preferences for life. Review of Economics and Statistics, 105(2), 467-473.
Cotofan, M., Diris, R., & Schils, T. (2022). Who benefits from attending the higher track? The effect of track assignment on skill development and the role of relative age. Journal of Human Capital, 16(2), 273-302.
Cotofan, M., De Neve, J. E., Golin, M., Kaats, M., & Ward, G. (2021). Work and well-being during COVID-19: impact, inequalities, resilience, and the future of work. World happiness report, 2021, 153.
Cotofan, M. (2021). Learning from praise: Evidence from a field experiment with teachers. Journal of public economics, 204, 104540.
Working papers
Are the Upwardly-Mobile More Left-Wing? - joint with Andrew Clark (PSE) - R&R Economica
Global warming cools voters down: How climate concerns affect policy preferences - joint with Karlygash Kuralbayeva (KCL) and Konstantinos Matakos (KCL)
Exercise, Volunteering, and Mental Health: Evidence from a Nation-Wide Programme - joint with Christian Krekel (LSE) and Ekaterina Oparina (LSE)
Policy Work ____________
UK Wellbeing Report (2025) - commissioned by the World Wellbeing Movement.
UK Wellbeing Report (2024) - commissioned by the World Wellbeing Movement.
The Effects of the National Minimum Wage on the Non-Wage Benefits in the Low Pay Sector - joint with Andrew Clark and Richard Layard (Funded by the Low Pay Commission Grant for Research on the Impact of the National Minimum Wage)
Consultation commissioned by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on the Levelling Up Wellbeing Mission (2022) - joint with Richard Layard (LSE), Andrew Clark (PSE), and Jan de Neve (Oxford University).
Recent Conference and Seminars Presentations
2025: Wellbeing Seminars, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE (November 2025), All-Party Parliamentary Group on Wellbeing Economics (October 2025), London Public Policy Day, UCL (June 2025), Launch of UK Wellbeing Report, House of Lords (June 2025), EAYE 2025, King’s College London (May 2025), Wellbeing Seminars, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE (April 2025), Invited Seminar, Warwick Business School (February 2025)
2024: OECD Invited Seminar, Paris (December 2024), Workshop on the Political Economy of Climate Change, Sciences Po (December 2024), Berlin Behavioral Economics Seminars, Berlin (October 2024), Development Economics Workshop, Durham University (June 2024), Policy Workshop on Volunteering and Mental Health, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE (May 2024), Invited Seminar, Lund University (May 2024)
2023: CDES Sustainable Development Conference, Monash University Prato Centre (June 2023), Wellbeing Seminars, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE (May 2023), CEP Annual Conference 2023, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE (May 2023), Guest Lecturer, Economics of Happiness, Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science, LSE (March 2023), Invited Seminar, University of Regensburg (January 2023), Departmental Seminars, Department of Political Economy, King’s College London (January 2023)
2022: Roundtable on Levelling Up and Well-Being, Department for Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities (December 2022), Departmental Seminars, Department of Political Economy, King’s College London (November 2022), Invited Seminar, SSEES, UCL (October 2022), Workshop on the Economics and Politics of Migration, EBRD (June 2022), Workshop on Democracy in the Digital Era and the Continued Challenge of Populism, King’s College London (June 2022), CEP Annual Conference 2022, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE (May 2022), Guest Lecturer, Economics of Happiness, Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science, LSE (March 2022)
2020/2021: Resolution Foundation, Berlin Behavioral Economics Seminar Series, Global Wellbeing Initiative Panel, All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) meeting on Wellbeing, Economics Seminars, University of Reading, Labour Markets Workshop, Centre for Economic Performance, SEH meeting on World Happiness Report; Wellbeing Seminars, Centre for Economic Performance; Education Group Seminar, Centre for Economic Performance; Wellbeing Seminars, Wellbeing Research Centre at Oxford University; The Economics of Migration Seminars, LISER; Wellbeing Seminars, Centre for Economic Performance; Seminar Recent Advances in Economics of Management and Organizations, Erasmus University; CPB Netherlands.
2019/2018: Workshop on Happiness, Meaning and Society, Erasmus University; Jacobs-CCWD Workshop, University of Zurich; GSS graduate seminar, Tilburg University; Brown Bag Seminars, Erasmus University, NCBEE 2019, Kiel Institute for World Economy; EALE 2019, Uppsala; ESA 2019, Dijon; M-BEPS 2019, Maastricht University; Tinbergen Institute PhD Seminars; IMEBESS 2019, Utrecht University; C-SEB Research Seminar, Cologne University; Briq/IZA Workshop on Behavioral Economics of Education, Bonn; Seminar Recent Advances in Economics of Management and Organizations, Erasmus University; Female Network Meeting, Erasmus University; L&W Seminars, Maastricht University; Field Days, Erasmus University; PhD Brown Bag Seminars, Columbia University; Advances with Field Experiments (AFE), Boston University; Brown Bag Seminars, Erasmus University .
Peer Review Experience
American Economic Journal : Applied Economics, American Economic Journal : Macroeconomics, European Economic Review, Journal of Applied Econometrics, Journal of Economic Literature, Journal of Economic Surveys, Economics of Education Review, Journal of Population Economics, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Health Economics, Management Science, European Journal of Political research, ILR Review, and Industrial Relations.
Teaching Experience ______
Honors Course "Current Research in Economics" 2015
Undergraduate level, Tinbergen Institute (TI)
Macroeconomics III 2016
Graduate level, Tinbergen Institute (TI)
Applied Microeconomics 2017, 2018
Undergraduate level, Erasmus University (EUR)
Applied Econometrics 2017, 2019
Graduate level, Erasmus University (EUR)
Applied Econometrics 2022
Undergraduate Level, King’s College London
Principles of Economics Since 2022
Undergraduate Level, King’s College London
Topics in Applied Microeconomics Since 2023
Graduate Level, King’s College London
Supervision of Bachelor Theses 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023
Scholarships and Grants ______
Templeton Foundation Grant onThe Political July 2024 - July 2025
Economy of Knowledge and Ignorance
Low Pay Commission Grant for Research on the June 2021 - December 2021
Impact of the National Minimum Wage
Tinbergen excellence scholarship September 2014-August 2015
Tinbergen excellence scholarship September 2015-August 2016
Languages
Romanian: native
English: proficient user (C2)
Spanish: advanced understanding, advanced communication (B1-B2)
German: basic understanding and communication (A2)
Dutch: basic understanding and communication (A2)