I worked in the financial sector in São Paulo between 2010 and 2012 at Fundamento Asset Management and Schroders Asset Management.  In 2012 I changed my area of activity when I joined the Fundação Instituto de Pesquisas Econômicas (FIPE) for a consultancy project on the economic evaluation of transportation investments by the government of São Paulo. As Ph.D. student I worked as Research Assistant for the Brazilian Studies Association, the Regional Economics Application Laboratory (REAL) and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). The Werner Baer fellowship gave me the opportunity to carry the final year of my PhD in Brazil, where I have been received as a visiting scholar in the University of São Paulo (both in the campus of São Paulo and Ribeirão Preto), and the Fundação Getúlio Vargas, São Paulo.  As of now, I am in the process of defending my PhD thesis, and I am expected to graduate in the Summer of 2018. My thesis chapters investigate: 1) the provision of free public transportation for the elderly in Brazil and how it affects individuals’ mode demand; 2) the effects of speed limit reductions on accidents and commuting time in São Paulo; 3) the effectiveness of affirmative action policies adopted between 2004 and 2012 on improving the access of disadvantaged students to Brazilian federal universities.