Rate My Professor Ernesto Dal Bo

Ernesto Dal Bó serves as the Phillips Girgich Professor in Business and Public Policy at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, Professor of Political Science, and co-director of the Berkeley Center for Economics & Politics. His research in political economy examines governance issues such as political influence, corruption, social conflict, coercion, morality and social norms, state formation, state capabilities development, and the characteristics and actions of political leaders and civil servants. Dal Bó applies microeconomic theory to study collective decision-making processes and related dynamics. He primarily teaches political economy courses within the Berkeley MBA program and at the doctoral level.

Dal Bó has been a faculty member at UC Berkeley since 2003, assuming the Phillips Girgich professorship in 2013. He earned a DPhil in Economics from the University of Oxford. His seminal contributions to the literature include "Regulatory Capture: A Review" published in the Oxford Review of Economic Policy in 2006; "Strengthening State Capabilities: The Role of Financial Incentives in the Call to Public Service" with Frederico Finan and Martín A. Rossi in The Quarterly Journal of Economics in 2013; "Political Dynasties" with Pedro Dal Bó and Jason Snyder in The Review of Economic Studies in 2009; "Workers, Warriors, and Criminals: Social Conflict in General Equilibrium" with Pedro Dal Bó in the Journal of the European Economic Association in 2011; "Who Becomes a Politician?" with Finan, Olle Folke, Torsten Persson, and Johanna Rickne in The Quarterly Journal of Economics in 2017; and "Plata o Plomo?: Bribe and Punishment in a Theory of Political Influence" with Pedro Dal Bó and Rafael Di Tella in the American Political Science Review in 2006. Dal Bó's scholarship has shaped understandings in political economy on topics including regulatory capture, incentives in public service, political dynasties, social conflict, politician selection, and political influence. He co-won the best paper award at the 2019 Academy of Management Annual Meeting with Frederico Finan and served as Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, during 2023-2024.