mathematics

Oriana Bandiera

Oriana Bandiera is a mathematics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Oriana Bandiera rather than just read about it. In short: Oriana Bandiera, FBA (born 26 August 1971) is an Italian development economist and academic, who is currently the Sir Anthony Atkinson Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics. Her research focuses on development, labour, and organisational economics.

Key takeaways

Oriana Bandiera belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Oriana Bandiera to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Oriana Bandiera from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Oriana Bandiera, FBA (born 26 August 1971) is an Italian development economist and academic, who is currently the Sir Anthony Atkinson Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics. Her research focuses on development, labour, and organisational economics. Outside of her academic appointment, she is co-editor of Econometrica, and an affiliate of the Centre for Economic Policy Research and Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development. A fellow of the Econometric Society and the British Academy, she received the Yrjö Jahnsson Award in 2019, an award granted annually to the best European economist(s) under the age of 45.

Early life and education Bandiera was born on 26 August 1971 in Catania, Sicily, Italy. She received a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in 1993, followed by a Master of Science (MSc) degree in 1994, both from Bocconi University in Milan. In her final year at Bocconi, Nicholas Stern delivered a public lecture, discussing his experiences conducting research in Palanpur, Gujarat. Bandiera observed in the lecture that Palanpur was in many ways more similar to her native Sicily than Sicily was to Milan, sparking an interest in development economics. In 2000, she received a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in economics from Boston College. Her thesis, entitled "Economic Institutions in Developing Countries", included work on the rise of Mafia in Sicily and the effects of financial liberalization on savings in a suite of developing countries.

Academic career 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 by LSE. 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 currently holds the Sir Anthony Atkinson Chair in Economics at LSE, where she directs the State Research Program of the International Growth Centre. Alongside her academic appointments, Bandiera has been co-editor of Econometrica since 2016, the first woman to hold the position, and previously served on the editorial boards of Economica and the Journal of Labor Economics. She was elected Fellow of the Econometric Society in 2016, and is an affiliate of the Centre for Economic Policy Research, Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development, and IZA Institute of Labor Economics (IZA). At IZA, she directs a research program on gender, growth and labour markets in low-income countries. Since 2022, she has also been a member of the Scientific Council of the Barcelona School of Economics. In 2022, Bandiera co-founded the Hub for Equal Representation in the Economy, an LSE based research centre, alongside Camille Landais and Nina Rousille. The centre pursues research on the experiences of women and underrepresented minorities in the workplace.

Research Bandiera's research focuses on development economics, labour economics and organisational economics. According to Research Papers in Economics, she is one of the most cited economists in the world, ranking within the top 50 women by research output as of November 2023.

Management in the public sector Much of Bandiera's research examines public service delivery in the developing world, in particular the question of how to reduce corruption and ensure that the incentives of civil servants align with those of the beneficiaries they serve. In work with Nava Ashraf, Edward Davenport, and Scott Lee, Bandiera shows through a randomised controlled trial that advertising career advancement opportunities in a health-worker recruitment drive in Zambia increases the quality of those hired, with better performance on training exams and similar degrees of pro-sociality. She also finds that these "go getters" are more productive, conducting more community health meetings and home visits. In other work with Michael Best, Adnan Khan, and Andrea Prat, Bandiera shows that transferring autonomy over procurement from monitors to field officers in Punjab, Pakistan reduces prices paid for government purchased goods, with no commensurate decrease in quality.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Logo of the European Economic Association

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Oriana Bandiera

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Oriana Bandiera claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Oriana Bandiera before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Oriana Bandiera ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Oriana Bandiera

In research: Oriana Bandiera appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Oriana Bandiera in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Oriana Bandiera is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1971 births, 20th-century Italian economists, 21st-century Italian economists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Oriana Bandiera outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Oriana Bandiera in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Oriana Bandiera means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Oriana Bandiera out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Oriana Bandiera in simple terms?

Why does Oriana Bandiera matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Oriana Bandiera?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Oriana Bandiera.