Sandra
Polanía Reyes

Personal link: https://spolaniareyes.github.io/ Sandra Polanía-Reyes is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Navarra in Spain. Her research lies at the intersection of behavioral, development, and experimental economics, with a focus on prosocial behavior, governance, and the design of behavioral public policy interventions. With more than two decades of experience, she specializes in applying experimental methods—both in the lab and the field—to understand how social norms, trust, and leadership influence cooperation, collective action, and human development. She holds dual PhDs in Economics from University College London (UK) and in Political Economy from the University of Siena (Italy), as well as an MA and BA in Economics from the University of Los Andes (Colombia). Sandra has taught at undergraduate and graduate levels in Colombia, the UK, the US, Lithuania, and Spain. At the University of Navarra, she teaches courses in Development Economics and Current Economic Challenges. Sandra is a founding member of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association's Behavioral Insights Network (LACEA BRAIN) and serves on its Academic Committee. Since 2023, she has been Associate Editor of Frontiers in Behavioral Economics – Culture and Ethics and a Resident Fellow at the Navarra Center for International Development (NCID). She is also affiliated with the CEIDS initiative at the University of Notre Dame and has previously held positions at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies and the DeNicola Center for Ethics and Culture. Her research agenda is rooted in interdisciplinary and policy-relevant questions. She has led or co-led field experiments on cooperation, empathy, and prosociality in Colombia, Argentina, Peru, Venezuela, Costa Rica, and Uruguay, funded by institutions such as the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), USAID, and the Spanish Ministry of Science. Her projects include behavioral interventions with marginalized communities—such as victims of armed conflict, youth, women’s groups, and migrants—as well as with public officials and Catholic Church organizations. Sandra promotes the use of mixed methods and ethical, reproducible research. She has collaborated with neuroscientists, political scientists, and theologians in efforts to integrate economic insight with broader humanistic perspectives. As a member of the Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences (BITSS), she is committed to pre-registration, open data, and transparent methodologies. Her publications have appeared in Journal of Economic Literature, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Fiscal Studies, Peace and Conflict, and in volumes published by the World Bank and Routledge. She has served as a reviewer for leading journals including Econometrica, Journal of Public Economics, Nature Human Behavior, and the American Political Science Review. Sandra regularly presents her work at international conferences and has been invited to speak at institutions such as UC Berkeley, University of Oxford, Carlos III Madrid, and UNU-WIDER. Her passion lies in understanding how to motivate and multiply prosociality, and in contributing to a more inclusive and cooperative society through rigorous, value-oriented research.