Quick Facts
Biography
Oriana Bandiera, FBA (born 26 August 1971) is an Italian economist and academic, specialising in development economics. She has been Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics since 2009 and Director of the Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines (STICERD) since 2012.
Early life and education
Bandiera was born on 26 August 1971 in Catania, Sicily, Italy. She studied economics at Bocconi University in Milan, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1993 and a Master of Science (MSc) degree in 1994. She then undertook postgraduate studies in economics at Boston College in the United States: she completed her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in 2000.
Academic career
Bandiera's research focuses on development economics. She also researches applied microeconomics, incentives in organisations, and labour markets.
In September 1999, Bandiera joined the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in England as a lecturer in economics. From January to March 2003, she was a visiting assistant professor at the University of Chicago. From January to March 2004, she was a visiting assistant professor at the Department of Economics of New York University. She spent April 2004 at the Institute for International Economic Studies (IIES) of Stockholm University. She was a visiting assistant professor at Bocconi University (her alma mater) in March 2005 and at Yale University in April 2005. She returned to the IIES a visiting assistant professor for March 2006. From March to May 2007, she was a visiting assistant professor at the Center for the Study of Industrial Organization of Northwestern University. In August 2007, she was promoted to Reader in Economics. She was made a Professor of Economics in 2009 or 2010. Since 2012, she has served as Director of LSE's Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines (STICERD). She has been Co-Editor of the Journal of Labor Economics since 2014 and of Economica since 2016.
Personal life
Bandiera is married. She has one son and one daughter. She speaks Italian, English, and Spanish.
Honours
In January 2008, Bandiera was awarded the 2007 Young Labor Economist Award by the IZA Institute of Labor Economics. In 2011, she was awarded the Carlo Alberto Medal, a medal "awarded to a young Italian economist (resident in Italy or abroad) under the age of 40 for his/her outstanding research contributions to the field of Economics": she is the first woman to be awarded the medal. In 2015, she was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences. In 2016, she was elected a Fellow of the Econometric Society.