Fitxa persona

Maja Barac has a solid academic background in economics. She completed her studies with a degree in Economics at the Universitat de València, ranking 7th out of 205 students with a grade of 8,49. Subsequently, she furthered her education with an Official Master's Degree in Industrial Economics at the same institution, where she received the extraordinary prize for her outstanding performance. Her educational path culminated with a European PhD in Industrial Economics, successfully defending her thesis entitled "Export vs FDI under cost heterogeneity: strategic entry, pre-commitment and oligopolistic reaction" with the highest grade of outstanding cum laude in July 2012. The doctoral period was funded by a competitive grant from the Generalidad Valenciana for the training of research personnel (BFPI/2007/125). In addition, she spent 3 months in 2010 at the School of Economics, University of Nottingham, with the scholarship for pre-doctoral fellows and contract students in research centres outside the Valencian Community (BEFPI/2009/016), where she had the opportunity to collaborate with experts in international trade and imperfect competition, the field of her doctoral thesis.

Her research career is distinguished by its multidisciplinarity, covering various thematic areas and publishing in high impact journals:

1. Teaching innovation, ICT, artificial intelligence and assessment of teaching-learning outcomes: As principal investigator and member of several projects, she has developed interactive materials to improve learning and assessment in undergraduate studies, using audience response tools to encourage student participation and self-assessment. Among her outstanding projects are "Development of interactive and multidisciplinary materials to enhance learning and assessment in undergraduate studies" (https://pages.uv.es/piclickers/eng/index.wiki) and "360° Learning: transforming teaching with active learning, gamification and artificial intelligence". Her publications include book chapters and articles in peer-reviewed journals such as REALIA, HUMAN REVIEW and Sustainability, addressing topics such as employability and soft skills in teaching and the combination of ICT in the teaching-learning process.

2. Inequality of household expenditure from a regional analysis and also with a gender perspective: She has co-authored detailed studies on Spanish household expenditure, assessing regional and gender convergence, presenting papers at international conferences such as the II Open Russian Statistical Congress and publishing in journals such as Economy of Region. Co-authored with the tenured lecturer Mª Isabel López-Rodríguez.

3. Economic policy, public policy evaluation and international economic policy: She has addressed various topics from the perspective of economic policy including instrumental policies at national or EU level, economic policies and the labour market, economic policy evaluation, economic policy in India and South Africa, the origins of academic economic policy in Spain or stability programmes, among others. The results of her research have been published in several book chapters in leading publishers such as Aranzadi and Tirant lo Blanc. Her publications also include articles in the Eastern European Countryside, Sociologia del Lavoro or International Review of Economic Policy, as well as several contributions to international conferences.

4. Imperfect competition, oligopolies and internationalisation strategies via exports and FDI: Her doctoral thesis and several publications analyse internationalisation strategies under demand uncertainty and imperfect competition, with publications in journals such as Industrial Economics, Managerial and Decision Economics, Bulletin of Economic Research and The Manchester School. Co-authored with the thesis supervisor, Professor Rafael Moner-Colonques.

Her teaching experience spans more than a decade at the Universitat de València, where she has taught economics subjects at undergraduate and master's level. Her pedagogical approach is characterised by the integration of innovative technologies and methodologies, such as the use of clickers and virtual platforms for the continuous and participative evaluation of students. Such is her involvement in the area that it has led to a very prolific line of research.

She has held various management roles at the Universitat de València, contributing significantly to academic organisation and administration. She has been President of the Academic and Cultural Activities Committee of the Department of Applied Economics, where she managed and allocated budgets for cultural and academic activities, organising seminars, conferences and workshops. In addition, she is an elected member of the Faculty Board and the Senate of the University of Valencia, representing the Teaching and Research Staff (PDI) in several committees, participating in decision-making and strategic planning of the faculty. She has also supervised review proposals as Coordinator of the Review Section of the quarterly publication "Noticias de Política Económica", ensuring the quality and relevance of the publications. She has also been a member of various departmental committees, such as the Examination Challenge Committee and the Examination Custody Committee, where she has contributed to the resolution of academic disputes and the improvement of assessment procedures. She is currently the coordinator of the Economic Policy Teaching Unit.