Mallesh M Pai

Mallesh M Pai is the Lay Family Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at Rice University and a CEPR Research Fellow. His research bridges mechanism design, auction theory, and blockchain economics, with applications to decentralized finance (DeFi) and privacy economics. Prior to Rice, he was a Janice and Julian Bers Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

• PhD in Managerial Economics and Strategy, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
• Bachelor's in Computer Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi

His work focuses on designing robust mechanisms in environments with information asymmetry, privacy constraints, and decentralized systems. Recent publications address dynamic transaction fees, blockchain centralization, and algorithmic collusion. He serves on program committees for major conferences in computer science and economics.

• Indirect Persuasion (Journal of Political Economy)
• Dynamic Transaction Fee Mechanism Design (with Max Resnick)
• Collusive Outcomes via Pricing Algorithms (Marketing Science)

Mallesh has received significant recognition for his work, including the Best Paper award at the American Economic Journal: Microeconomics (2021) and Best Pricing Paper from the American Marketing Association RAPSIG (2023). His research is supported by NSF grants on fair data analysis and digital privacy foundations.

He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in microeconomic theory and market design at Rice, emphasizing practical applications of theoretical models. His Erdős number is 3, reflecting interdisciplinary collaborations.