Maria José Pérez Lacasta is a professor of the Department of Economics at Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) since 1989. She obtained her Degree in Economics from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and her PhD in 1999 from Universitat de Barcelona (UB) with a thesis about the pension system reform. She has been secretary of the Economy Department since 2009 until 2017.

Her reasearch interests are focused on international economics, gender discrimination and inequality and, especially, health and ageing economics.