Virginia Minni

Virginia Minni is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, specializing in labor, organizational, and development economics. Her research examines how managers and organizational structures shape talent allocation, productivity, and equity within firms through large-scale personnel data collaborations with multinational organizations.

She earned her Ph.D. in Economics from The London School of Economics (LSE) and was previously a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). Her academic journey reflects a strong foundation in empirical economic research with real-world applications.

Minni's research program investigates critical questions about leadership effects on worker outcomes, gender dynamics across development levels, and innovative workplace interventions. Key projects include analyzing manager rotations in multinational firms, randomized trials on workplace meaning initiatives, and cross-country studies of gender norms. Her work bridges theoretical microeconomics with practical organizational challenges, emphasizing causal mechanisms through quasi-experimental designs and field experiments.

Her publication portfolio reveals a cohesive focus on human capital optimization, with recent work trending toward gender equity in global labor markets and the cultural transmission of managerial practices. Articles consistently leverage unique administrative datasets spanning 100+ countries, highlighting her methodological innovation in studying organizational behavior at scale.

Virginia has received significant recognition for her scholarship:

• Best Job Market Paper Award by the European Economic Association and UniCredit Foundation
• W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research Dissertation Award Honorable Mention
• AIEL Labor Dissertation Prize
• Ronald Coase Best Dissertation Award by the Society for Institutional and Organizational Economics

While specific grant details aren't provided, her research demonstrates substantial institutional support through access to proprietary personnel records from global firms and collaborations with leading economists. Her future work continues to explore leadership dynamics, gender norm evolution, and talent allocation mechanisms, with implications for both economic theory and corporate practice. Minni actively contributes to Chicago Booth's academic ecosystem through workshops and course instruction.

Operating within Booth's Economics department, she leverages the university's collaborative research infrastructure and global partnerships. Her work involves interdisciplinary teams spanning economics, organizational behavior, and development studies, often collaborating with institutions like the Institute for Fiscal Studies. This cross-institutional approach enables access to unique datasets and real-world testing environments for economic theories.