Dr. Melissa Dell

Biography

Melissa Dell is the Andrew E. Furer Professor of Economics at Harvard University. She specializes in examining the interplay between state and non-state actors in economic development. Her research notably investigates the relationship between government crackdowns and drug violence in Mexico, as well as the persistence of poverty in Mexico and Peru. She holds a Ph.D. in economics from MIT and graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor's degree from Harvard University. Additionally, she earned an M. Phil. with Distinction from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. She has also served as a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society Fellows and worked with the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research as a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Research Interests