Maria Racionero is Associate Professor at the Research School of Economics and was Associate Dean (HDR) at the College of Business and Economics of the Australian National University (ANU) 2017-2018.

Maria obtained the First National Prize, awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Education, upon completion of her undergraduate studies. She pursued her doctoral studies at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona where she obtained both a Master and a PhD degrees in Economics.

Maria’s main field of research is public economic theory, with particular interests in optimal taxation and higher education finance. Her work has been published in international refereed journals (Canadian Journal of Economics, European Economic Review, European Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Public Economic Theory, Oxford Economic Papers and International Tax and Public Finance). One of her current research projects explores the labour market effects of parental leave policies.

Maria joined the ANU as Lecturer in the then School of Economics at the Faculty of Economics and Commerce in July 2002. She was the only female academic in the School at Level B or above at the time she joined. She had to juggle teaching, research and a young family. She would like to share her experience to help women considering academic careers understand and balance the competing demands of academic jobs.