Eliana La Ferrara

Eliana La Ferrara is currently Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. A renowned economist, Prof. Eliana La Ferrara’s research interests lie in the field of development economics, with a focus on the role of political and social factors in economics. She has studied ethnic diversity, kin structure and social norms, aspirations and the effects of television on social outcomes. She has also investigated political constraints to development, with particular focus on violent conflict in Africa. Prof. La Ferrara’s work has been published in the American Economic Review, Econometrica, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Development Economics, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, and the Journal of the European Economic Association.

La Ferrara earned her Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University in 1999 and was previously the Fondazione Invernizzi Chair in Development Economics at Bocconi University. She holds many honors and fellowships, such as: Foreign Honorary Member of the AEA, International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Fellow of the Econometric Society. Prof. La Ferrara is currently the President of the Econometric Society and has been President of the European Economic Association and of the Bureau for Research in the Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD). She is the Program Director for Development Economics at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and the Director of the Laboratory for Effective Anti-poverty Policies (LEAP) at Bocconi. Prof. Eliana La Ferrara is the recipient of the 2020 Birgit Grodal Award and of numerous grants, including from the European Research Council (ERC), the European Commission, and USAID DIV. She is an affiliate of J-PAL and regularly works with major international organizations and NGOs to evaluate the effectiveness of development policies.