Faculty: Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
Nicolás Caso
Nicolás Caso Castellón is a PhD fellow at UNU-CRIS and at Ghent University. His research focuses on conflict, disasters, migration and the intersection between them. Before starting his position at Ghent University, he worked as a Research Assistant at Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO)’s Migration Centre. At PRIO he worked conducting quantitative analyses for two high-profile migration related projects: Aligning Migration Management and the Migration–Development Nexus (MIGNEX) and Future Migration as Present Fact (FUMI). His work primarly focuses on drivers of migration and consequences of immobility.
Louis Lippens
Louis Lippens is an FWO postdoctoral researcher at Ghent University, specialising in labour economics with a focus on measuring, understanding, and addressing labour market discrimination. Holding a master’s degree in work psychology from Ghent University, his academic path led to a joint PhD in economics and sociology from Ghent University and Vrije Universiteit Brussel. His doctoral research analyses the dynamics of labour market discrimination, examining its extent and underlying mechanisms. His postdoctoral project investigates whether discrimination weakens under market competition. Louis’ scholarly contributions are published in journals such as European Economic Review, Labour Economics, and Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. As an affiliated researcher at UGent @ Work, he is also involved in interdisciplinary research projects exploring significant labour market challenges and aims to contribute to evidence-based policy advice.
Ilse Ruyssen
Ilse Ruyssen is Associate Research Professor in Migration Economics at the Department of Economics of Ghent University and affiliated Research Fellow at the UNU-CRIS. Her research focuses on the factors shaping migration decisions and immobility (with particular attention for the role of climate change, health and retain factors), as well as the the implications of (non-)migration for the livelihoods of individuals and communities. She teaches various courses in migration and international economics at Ghent University, chairs the facultary Committee for Diversity and Inclusion, and coordinates the International Trade, Migration and Investment research group at her Department. Furthermore, she is the director of the CliMigHealth International Thematic Network, uniting scholars around the world from multiple disciplines working on the nexus between climate change, migration and health(care).
Rezart Hoxhaj
Rezart Hoxhaj holds a co-tutorship PhD in Economics of Migration from the University of Bari Aldo Moro and the University of Lille I. He was a research fellow at the Migration Policy Centre and at Roma Tre University. His research expertise includes immigrant’s integration, skilled immigration and FDI. Currently he is a Marie Curie Fellow at UGent working on the time use of immigrants.
Louise Devos
Since September 2023, Louise has been working as a doctoral researcher in the field of labour economics at Ghent University. Prior to this, she studied Economic Sciences, with a major in Economic Policy, also at Ghent University. Her research focuses on measuring, explaining, and addressing the labour market disadvantages of individuals with a migration background, primarily in Belgium.
Els Bekaert
Els Bekaert is a Postdoctoral Researcher in Economics at Ghent University and a Visiting Research Fellow at the United Nations University – CRIS, affiliated to the Nature, Climate and Health and Migration and Social Policy clusters. She obtained her PhD in Economics at Ghent University in 2022. Her research explores how climate change shapes human mobility, focusing on how environmental shocks affect migration aspirations and decisions, and why many people remain in climate-vulnerable regions despite rising risks. She currently holds a three-year postdoctoral fellowship from the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) for her project “Towards a better understanding of climate (im)mobility” (Application no. 12A5424N). By combining georeferenced climate data with survey evidence, her work aims to nuance climate-mobility debates and inform policy. She is also affiliated with the international research network CliMigHealth.
Flor Vandevelde
Flor Vandevelde is a doctoral researcher in the Department of Economics, supervised by Prof. Dr. Ilse Ruyssen. His research focuses on the consequences of restrictive migration policies implemented by countries of origin. He links such policies to involuntary immobility and the effects of this phenomenon. In addition to studying the consequences of restrictive emigration policies, he also aims to map them. His research employs empirical methods from economic science.
