David Cuberes
Room 415
Tel +44 (0)114 22 23313
Fax +44 (0)114 22 23458
email : d.cuberes@sheffield.ac.uk
Biography
David graduated from Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona, Spain) in 1998 and gained an MA at CEMFI (Madrid, Spain) in 2000. He completed his PhD from the University of Chicago in 2005. He worked as an Assistant Professor at Clemson University (USA) from 2005 to 2009 and at the University of Alicante (Spain) from 2009 to 2011. He has also visited the University of Warwick in 2008 and the Royal Holloway at the University of London in 2009.
David has completed research projects funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and has been a consultant for the World Bank since 2003. He joined the Department in September 2011 as a Lecturer of Economics.
Teaching
"I currently teach modules in applied macroeconomics and business finance. My main goal in these modules is to help students approach macroeconomic and finance problems with a simple set of tools and a critical reasoning. Special emphasis will be placed on current macroeconomic events. For instance, in the following months we will spend considerable time discussing the pros and cons of establishing a monetary union in countries as diverse as those that belong in the Euro zone. In my finance class we will, among other things, discuss the validity of the so called Efficient Markets Hypothesis that suggests that it is not possible to predict when the price of an asset is growing “too fast” (a price bubble) because changes in stock markets are, in general, impossible to predict based on available information. My lectures combine formal and informal discussions of economic theories and work related to the actual data that we observe. I believe a good balance between theory and empirics is very useful since it makes students aware of the usefulness and weaknesses of the main macroeconomic and finance models that economists use. I always encourage discussion and students’ participation and I often propose exercises that allow students to work in groups, which help them benefit from knowledge spillovers between them."
Research Summary and PhD Student Supervision
David´s research interests are in growth and economic development and urban economics. His current research focuses on the impact of historical economic institutions in determining the degree of fiscal discretionary policy and the importance of financial institutions in the process of urbanization. He has previously studied the relationship between democracy and medium growth volatility and the nature of the process of city creation as a country urbanizes. His research combines both theoretical and empirical methodologies and he would be interested in supervising students in economic growth and development and in topics related to urban economics or economic geography.
Working Papers
David Cuberes and Kevin Tsui. Aid and fertility: What does the cross-country evidence show? SERPS working paper 2011024.
Alberto Basso and David Cuberes. Institutions, culture, and the onset of the demographic transition." IVIE working paper 2011-13, series AD, 2011.
Howard Bodenhorn and David Cuberes. Financial development and city growth: Evidence from Northeastern American cities, 1790-1870." NBER working paper 15997.
David Cuberes and William Dougan. The effect of future investment on current money demand: Implications for the endogeneity of the money supply. IVIE working paper 2010-08, series AD, 2010.
Work in Progress
David Cuberes and Robert Tamura. The gap between equilibrium and optimal fertility.
David Cuberes and Marc Teignier. Gender inequality and economic growth."
David Cuberes. Are Internet and face-to-face contacts complements or substitutes? New evidence from Internet traffic between cities."
David Cuberes and Marc Teignier. Gender inequality, factor allocation, and aggregate productivity.
Luis Andres, Dan Biller and David Cuberes. Explaining rural-urban transformation in South Asia.