Elisa Macchi

Elisa Macchi is the August Family Assistant Professor of Economics at Brown University since January 2023. Previously, she was a Postdoctoral Associate at MIT Economics (2021–2022) and earned her PhD from the University of Zurich (2021), MPhil from the University of Bologna (2015), and BS from the University of Milan (2013). She is affiliated with the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD) and the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). She will be on sabbatical at Princeton University’s Research Program in Development Economics (2025–26).

Education:

• PhD in Economics, University of Zurich (2021)
• MPhil in Economics, University of Bologna (2015)
• BS in Economics, University of Milan (2013)

Research Interests: Development Economics and Behavioral Economics, with a focus on social preferences, relational contracts in information-poor contexts, mental health in academia, and gender bias in labor markets. Her work explores how economic behavior is shaped by social environments in low-income countries, such as the role of obesity as a wealth signal and the impact of EU fiscal policies on Euroscepticism.

Publications Trends: Her recent work bridges behavioral insights with macroeconomic contexts, emphasizing mental health in academia (2025), the paradox of obesity in credit markets (2023), and political economy dynamics in EU funding (2021). Ongoing projects investigate informal labor practices and hidden gender discrimination.

Awards & Grants: No awards explicitly listed, though her research has been featured in the New York Times and NZZ (Switzerland).

Advising & Labs: Teaches courses like Introduction to Econometrics and Economic Development. Active in BREAD and CEPR networks. No formal lab mentioned, but collaborates extensively on field experiments in Uganda.