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Manuel Al­var­iño

Postdoc

Subjects
Work-life balance Politics Welfare Poverty Equality

Primary research areas

Welfare state

I examine the welfare state as a social contract, an engine of universal insurance and redistribution that shows up everywhere from contributory pensions to wage bargaining and healthcare.

Comparative political economy

Parties, unions and employers mold institutions in distinct ways across countries, producing a wide array of socioeconomic landscapes.

Comparative politics

Some societies split over moral values, others over redistribution. I analyze how political divides, institutions and party systems differ across borders and translate into contrasting policy outcomes.

Politics that shape our welfare

Work-Life Balance Project
I am a Postdoctoral Researcher on the AGILE Work-Life Balance project, where we examine how national policies and workplace practices enable parents to combine fulfilling employment, family life and leisure. We do this through an original survey, focus groups and in-depth workplace studies.

Comparative Welfare States
More broadly, my research explains why some welfare states expand social rights differently from others. I focus on how party competition and advocacy groups shape family, labor-market and gender-equality policies.

  • Key Ideas
    Generous, well-designed work-life balance policies are essential for sustainable demographics and economies.
  • Once introduced, social policies take root in society and firms, becoming resistant to political change.
  • Parties influence one another through the legacies of the policies they enact.

Recent research projects

AGILE - Achieving Work-Life Balance: Citizens, Policies, and Firm Perspectives

AGILE is a comparative study of how policies shape the interaction between paid work, family care and free time to build a new theory of work-life balance. Using cross-country surveys and focus groups, we study citizen’s practices. Through policy analysis, we study how policies explain variation across countries. Inquiring into 24 firm case studies, we unveil workplace practices with meaningful impact.
webpage

Links

Ongoing project

Find more details and publications from the AGILE project here
Agile WLB

Outside activities

PhD at the EUI, 2021–2025

I earned my PhD at the European University Institute, Florence. I participated in the WELLSIRE ERC project.
WELLSIRE

Applied knowledge transfer, 2018–now

I write applied research for a broader audience on public policy and economics with a focus on Catalonia.
Espai Zero Vuit

Press, 2021–now

I write op-eds in Spanish newspapers about politics and public policy
Press articles list

Public Policy Seminar at IBEI, Barcelona, Spain, 2025–2025

One seminar of two hours to student of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, Barcelona