MS in International & Development Economics – Meet Professor Alessandra Cassar

Wednesday, January 15, 2025 at 12:00 PM until 1:00 PMPacific Standard Time UTC -08:00

Meet Professor Alessandra Cassar, faculty of the MS in International and Development Economics (IDEC) program through this interactive information session. Professor Cassar will share key aspects of the IDEC program and how the unique curriculum will shape your experience, and advance your career in international and development economics. 

For questions about our program or this event, please contact us at idec@usfca.edu.

About the Presenter: 
Alessandra Cassar is a professor of economics at the University of San Francisco. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the Economic Science Association and a former co-director of LEEPS Lab (Learning and Experimental Economics Projects of Santa Cruz) at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She received her MA in Economics from Bocconi University, Milan, in 1996, and her PhD in International Economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 2001.

Cassar is passionate about investigating the origins of preferences and their role in development. Through laboratory and field experiments across the world, her studies focus on the contributions of evolutionary processes to shaping human behavior. Her current research concentrates on the under-studied areas of female competitiveness; the consequences of conflict and disaster victimization for altruism, trust, religiosity, risk, and time preferences; and the role of social networks for economic outcomes.

She is also researching how to design programs to overcome individuals’ internal constraints to support economic empowerment.

Cassar has received grants from the National Science Foundation, the Department of State, the Charles Koch Foundation, and the Levis Strauss Foundation. Her work has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Psychological Science, The Economic Journal, Games and Economic Behavior, Journal of Economic Growth, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, among others, and appears in the popular press.

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