Prof. Dr. Ana Costa-Ramón

What influenced your career decisions?

I always felt the need to learn and better understand the world. A turning point for me was to realize that economics is a field that provides you with a very useful set of tools to analyze questions that are relevant from a social perspective. At that moment, I decided that I wanted to do research.

What achievement in your life are you particularly proud of?

I am proud of being able to work in something that I really like and that can have meaningful policy implications. 

Where do you get inspiration from for your work?

I get inspiration mostly from reading articles on gender and health, including research done in other disciplines. In general, I try to identify important knowledge gaps and then think about how can I use the methodology on causal inference to contribute to gain understanding on a given topic.

According to your opinion, what will distinguish our Faculty in five years' time?

I think that the Faculty is already in a very good position and it will continue to do exciting high-quality work.

Why would you recommend studying at our Faculty to young women holding their Matura (Swiss university entry qualification)?

I believe it is an exciting moment for women in Economics. There is plenty of evidence that the economics profession suffers from a lack of diversity. Fortunately, in recent years, many universities and researchers have started working to change this situation. In my opinion, women will have more opportunities to contribute and have their voices heard in the coming years.