Rate My Professor Abigail Payne

A. Abigail Payne is the Ronald Henderson Professor of Economics in the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Melbourne, where she served as Director of the Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research from 2016 to 2024. A data-driven economist, she specializes in empirical public economics, focusing on charitable giving and philanthropy, the economics of education, economic disadvantage, poverty reduction, donor behaviour, law and economics, and gender differences in educational outcomes. Her research employs rigorous empirical analysis, often using administrative data to inform policy on issues such as transitions from high school to university, gender gaps in STEM enrollment, scholarships for low-income students, and the impacts of tax incentives on giving.

Professor Payne earned her PhD in Economics from Princeton University, JD from Cornell University, and BA from Denison University, and practiced law in Washington, DC before pursuing her doctorate. Her career spans institutions in Canada, the United States, and Australia, including McMaster University as Canada Research Chair in Public Economics, University of Illinois, and University of Toronto. She has published extensively in leading economic and public policy journals, with key works including "High School Choices and the Gender Gap in STEM Enrollment" (with David Card, 2021), explorations of tuition effects on gender differences in university enrollment and STEM majors (with Katherine Cuff and Ana Gamarra Rondinel), and studies on persistence and academic success in university (with M.D. Dooley and others). Payne has advanced data infrastructure by developing secure labs such as the Public Economics Data Analysis Laboratory (PEDAL) at McMaster and Melbourne Institute Data Lab (MIDL), and leads initiatives like the Paul Ramsay Foundation's Breaking Down Barriers project and serves as Chief Investigator for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course. She contributes to policy through roles on the Australian Statistics Advisory Council, as chair of the ifo Institute Scientific Advisory Council, and various editorial boards, and was a 2022 Visiting Fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution.