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Beatriz González López-Valcárcel earned her Licenciatura in Economics from the University of Santiago de Compostela and her Ph.D. in Economics from the Universidad de La Laguna. She commenced her academic career as a Lecturer in the Faculty of Economics at the Universidad de La Laguna from 1977 to 1986, followed by a visiting researcher position at the Econometric Institute of Erasmus University Rotterdam in 1985-1986. Since 1986, she has been affiliated with the Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, advancing to Associate Professor from 1986 to 1991 and Full Professor of Applied Economics with a focus on Quantitative Methods in Economics and Management since 1991. She currently holds the position of Emeritus Professor. In administrative capacities, she served as Vice-Rector for Economic Planning in 1991-1992 and Director of the Department of Quantitative Methods in Economics and Management from 1998 to 2001. Within Business & Economics, her research specializations encompass health economics, including human resources planning for health, pharmaceutical pricing and policies, economics of prevention, simulation models for health organization and financing, drug utilization studies, innovation in healthcare technologies, and the socioeconomic determinants of health outcomes such as obesity and body mass index during economic crises.
Her scholarly impact is evidenced by key publications such as 'Impact of the Economic Crisis on Body Mass Index in Spain: An Intersectional Multilevel Analysis' (Population Research and Policy Review, 2023, co-authored with A. Hernández-Yumar et al.), 'Economic crisis and obesity in the Canary Islands' (Economics & Human Biology, 2020), 'Socioeconomic and contextual determinants of the burden of disease attributable to metabolic risks in childhood' (Frontiers in Public Health, 2022), and books including 'Difusión de nuevas tecnologías sanitarias y políticas públicas' (Masson, 2005) and 'Análisis multivariante. Aplicaciones en el ámbito sanitario' (1991). She has garnered major honors, including the Cross of the Civil Order of Healthcare from the Spanish Ministry of Health, designation as Adoptive Daughter of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (2009) and Gran Canaria (2016), Professor Honoris Causa at Universidad Isalud in Buenos Aires (2015), and Honorary Member of the Spanish Association of Health Economics (2024). Beatriz González López-Valcárcel has held influential leadership roles as President of the Spanish Association of Health Economics (2004-2005), President of the European Public Health Association's Health Economics Section (2011-2012), and President of the Spanish Society of Public Health and Health Administration (2015-2017). She contributes to policy through expert panels, such as those for Spain's Public Health Act and COVID-19 committees, and serves on editorial boards for journals like Gaceta Sanitaria and Hacienda Pública Española, alongside refereeing for Health Economics and the Journal of Health Economics. She has delivered public lectures and seminars on health policy topics at institutions including the Universidad de La Laguna.