Albert pursues research in local public finance, real estate economics and urban economic development, with an emphasis on immigration and immigrant location choices, and the impact of skills on earnings and city growth. He conducts research and teaching in both the urban planning and real estate programs. He holds a BA and an MA in economics from Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (1995 and 1997, respectively) and a PhD in economics from Harvard, 2002. Prior to coming to MIT, he was an assistant professor of real estate in the MBA Core Program at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.