I have recently started a new job as a Health Policy Researcher, at the Health Division of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Besides the policy work conducted in this international organizarion I keep pursuing my research and teaching interests in Academia. For that I hold a part-time Assistant Professor position at the Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management. I am part of the Health Economics Research Group, as well as Erasmus Centre for Health Economics Rotterdam (EsCHER). Back in Portugal I am Vice President of the Portuguese Association for Health Economics (APES), and I collaborate with the Nova SBE Health Economics & Management Knowledge Center.



During the past 5 years I have been a PhD candidate at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, bringing together the fields of health economics and public health. I was jointly supervised by the Department of Public Health of ErasmusMC and the Department of Applied Economics of the Erasmus School of Economics. My PhD trajectory included a secondment at the Mental Health and Disability team of the OECD, in Paris, and a reearch visit to the 3PO and the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health of McGill University, in Montreal. 


During my  PhD I have been applying quasi-experimental methods to evaluate policies with a causal lenses, in line with methodologies of impact evaluation. I have used large administrative datasets to identify differential effects of public programs and reforms by socioeconomic status. With my research I aim to support evidence-based policy making with a better understanding of how policy can (unintendly) contribute to health care and health inequalities in the population. Most of my current projects are in the field of mental health, but are also linked to topics such as long-term care, health insurance coverage and cost-sharing. You can read some of my work in SSM, Health Economics and Lancet Psychiatry.


In 2017 I have completed a MSc in International Health Policy and Health Economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). While in London I have been a research assistant to the Social Policy and the Psychological and Behavioural Science departments of LSE and  had academic placements at the health care focused think-thank Nuffield Trust and at the Health Value for Money team of the National Audit Office.


As part of my working experience I held roles of Outcomes Consultant and Outcomes Research Manager, respectively in UK and Portuguese subsidiaries of multinational pharmaceutical industries. I have also spent time as an analyst and consultant at the Centre for Evidence-based Medicine of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon. I have graduated as a Pharmacist (M.Pharm) from the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Lisbon in 2013. 


Detailed information on my education and  working experience can be found on my CV.

CV_FranciscaVargasLopes_August2023.pdf