SOAS Department of Economics appoints José Antonio Cuesta Leiva as Professor in Practice
The Department of Economics at SOAS University of London is pleased to announce that Dr José Antonio Cuesta Leiva has been appointed as Professor in Practice.
José Cuesta Leiva is a leading development economist whose work bridges academic research and international policy practice in poverty reduction, inequality, social protection, conflict, social sustainability, gender, and distributive policy analysis. He brings to SOAS extensive experience from the World Bank, UNICEF, the Inter-American Development Bank, UNDP, and the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague.
José is currently a Lead Economist at the World Bank and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University. He previously served as Chief of Social and Economic Policy at the UNICEF Office of Research in Florence, Senior Research Economist at the Inter-American Development Bank, and Economist at the United Nations Development Programme in Honduras. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Oxford.
His research focuses on poverty and inequality, the distributive analysis of social policies, intra-household allocation, social protection, labour market distortions, social exclusion, and the links between poverty and conflict. He has worked across countries in Latin America, Asia, and Africa, combining rigorous applied research with policy.
José has made significant contributions to development policy. He co-directed the World Bank’s Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2016: Taking on Inequality report and UNICEF’s Report Card 2018: An Unfair Start, on inequalities in children’s education in rich countries. He has published extensively in leading development and policy journals, including World Development, Journal of Development Studies, Review of Income and Wealth, European Journal of Development Research, Journal of International Development, Development Policy Review, and Economics Letters. He is also Editor of the European Journal of Development Research and Associate Editor of the Journal of Economic Policy Reform.
José has played a major role in strengthening partnerships between SOAS and the World Bank, contributing to the Department of Economics’ Co-Supervised MSc Dissertation Programme and to the development of a new internship programme with the World Bank. These initiatives create further opportunities for SOAS students to gain applied experience in international development policy and research. His appointment will also support the development of joint research initiatives and policy dialogues between SOAS, governments in the Global South, and international organisations.
His appointment as Professor in Practice will further strengthen SOAS’s leadership in development economics. With his outstanding record of work across international organisations, academic institutions, and country-level policy settings, José brings valuable expertise and networks that will support the Department’s research, teaching, outreach, and engagement with global development institutions.
Professor José Cuesta said:
I am honoured and thrilled to be appointed Professor in Practice in the Department of Economics at such a prestigious institution as SOAS. I look forward to working with Dr Niño-Zarazúa and colleagues on research and policy dialogue addressing critical development concerns of our time, especially those related to poverty, inequality, labour markets, and gender.
Dr Miguel Niño-Zarazúa, Reader in Development Economics at SOAS, said:
We are delighted to welcome José Cuesta as Professor in Practice in the Department of Economics. José brings an exceptional combination of academic expertise and policy experience in poverty and inequality analysis, social protection, labour market policies, gender, and social sustainability research. His appointment will greatly enrich our research environment, deepen our engagement with international development institutions, and provide valuable opportunities for our students to connect rigorous economic analysis with real-world policy practice.
