
Danila Serra
Phone: (+1) 979-862-4412 Office:
WCSS 242
I am a Professor of Economics and the holder of the Claudius M. Easley, Jr. Faculty Fellowship in
Liberal Arts (2026-2028) at Texas A&M University. I have a joint appointment in the
Department of Economics and the Bush School of Government and Public Service.
I am an applied behavioral economist employing experimental
methods to address questions in development, education, labor, and gender
economics. I am a J-PAL Faculty
Affiliate, an IZA Research Fellow, an
Affiliated Researcher at the Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities ( LEO) and an EGAP research member. I hold a PhD in Economics from
the University of Oxford, an MSc in Economics from the London School of
Economics, and a BSc in Economics and Social Sciences from Bocconi University.
My research has been funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Russell Sage
Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, the World Bank, the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation, the IZA G²LM|LIC program, the Social Science Research Council
(SSRC), JPAL and Arnold Ventures. In 2017, I was selected by the International Foundation
for Research in Experimental Economics (IFREE) as the inaugural recipient of
the Vernon
L. Smith Ascending Scholar Prize.
In February 2025, I hosted an “Ask Me Anything”
session organized by JPAL-Africa to celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. The AMA has been now converted into a blog post (thanks to Paul C. J. Berthe),
featuring some of my research and thoughts on gender equality in education.
Updated January 2026