Yesterday, the Department of Foundations of Economic Analysis of the University of Alicante held the official inauguration of its Master’s Degree in Quantitative Economics. This training, which this year begins its 21st edition, is notable for being one of the few Master’s Degrees in Spain which is a two year full-time course and taught fully in English with American style teaching. The Master’s Degree offers participants top level training for undertaking professional careers at universities, research centres, consulting firms and businesses, with a professional integration rate of almost 100%.
During the inauguration, a former student of the programme, José Gabriel Romero, currently a tenured professor of the Department of Applied Economics at the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB), gave the seminar “Exposure to Islamophobia: The impacts of an increased risk of bullying victimization on human capital”.
The speaker explained that in his work, the impact caused by the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks in the USA was used to study the short and long-term consequences of exposure to Islamophobia by young people in secondary school. As he stated, “The estimations show an immediate and sharp increase in rates of identity-based harassment against young Arabs/Muslims in comparison with young people from other ethnic groups during 2001-2003”. Another of Gabriel Romero’s conclusions specified that “We find that exposure to Islamophobia increased rates of school dropouts by 4.11% among young males of Arab-Muslim origin born in the USA, which is a great effect based on a base rate of school dropouts of 4.6% in the affected population”.
Additionally, notable among the discoveries presented during the inauguration was that “Full-time male workers born in 1984 earn 12.8% less than similar workers who were not exposed to Islamophobia. Additionally, full-time Arab-Muslim male workers born between 1983 and 1985 are between 9% and 12.5% more likely to be in the first quintile of salary distribution of the state of residence by year in comparison with similar workers who were not exposed to Islamophobia”.
The Museum of the University of Alicante (MUA) was the setting where the inauguration ceremony was held, attended by both students joining the new edition, students starting the second year, and graduates who finished in the previous academic year, who received a commemorative diploma. Those in charge of welcoming the attendees were Juan Llopis, Director of Institutional Relations and Projects; María Elena Fabregat, Vice-Dean of Institutional Relations, Equality and Mobility Policies; Iñigo Iturbe-Ormaetxe, Director of the FAE Department; and Carlos Cueva, Coordinator of the Master’s Degree in Quantitative Economics.
Also participating in the inauguration were technology and consulting companies interested in the profile of students of this Master’s Degree. Specifically, these were Jorge Casanova of global economic consultant Compass Lexecon, Juana Santamaría of consulting firm Frontiers, and Pau Agulló of Shoptimus AI, a company specialised in software development for the commercial sector. Each of them presented the organisations that they represent, which are interested in welcoming future graduates of the FAE Master’s Degree in Quantitative Economics.