Rate My Professor Birendra Rai

Birendra Rai is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics at Monash Business School, Monash University, a position he has held since 2009. He earned his PhD in Economics from Texas A&M University and served as a post-doctoral research associate at the Max Planck Institute of Economics in Jena, Germany. His qualifications also include B.Com, B.Ec, PPE, and BA degrees. Rai's research focuses on theoretical microeconomics and experimental and behavioral economics. He teaches graduate-level courses including Mathematical Economic Theory (ECC/BEX 5850) and Research Topics in Microeconomics (ECC/BEX 6650). In teaching administration, he is the Director of all Clayton undergraduate programs for the Department of Economics, BA Coordinator, and Learning and Teaching Director. Previously, he directed the department's Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) program for two years and coordinated mathematics for the Education Committee, contributing to program design such as co-taught units on migration. His research addresses topics like ethical resource allocation, voter competence perceptions, legislative influence in polarized settings, and public support for vaccine equity, contributing to UN SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being.

Rai has published in leading journals, with notable works including "Competence in the eye of the electorate: appearance, incumbency, and vote shares" with Bilson, Smyth, and Wang (Legislative Studies Quarterly, 2024); "Influencing a polarized and connected legislature" with Das Chaudhury and Leister (Games and Economic Behavior, 2023); "Public support in the United States for global equity in vaccine pricing" with Chan, Datt, Islam, and Wang (Scientific Reports, 2022); "Awareness of ethical dilemmas enhances public support for the principle of saving more lives in the United States: a survey experiment based on ethical allocation of scarce ventilators" with Wang, Pandit, Handfield, and So (Social Science & Medicine, 2021); and "Testing the single-peakedness of other-regarding preferences" with Levati and Nicholas (European Economic Review, 2014). Highly cited publications feature "Generalized contest success functions" with Sarin (Economic Theory, 2009; 99 citations), "Tournament outcomes and prosocial behaviour" with Kidd and Nicholas (Journal of Economic Psychology, 2013; 29 citations), "Pre-marital confinement of women: A signaling and matching approach" with Sengupta (Journal of Development Economics, 2013; 16 citations), and "Context and interpretation in laboratory experiments: The case of reciprocity" with Levati and Miettinen (Journal of Economic Psychology, 2011; 14 citations). He supervises graduate research students in applied microeconomics and related fields.