Rate My Professor Rigissa Megalokonomou

Rigissa Megalokonomou is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at Monash University. She graduated top of her BSc in Economics class at the University of Athens, holds an MSc in Economics and Econometrics from the University of Essex in the UK, and obtained her PhD in Economics from the University of Warwick in 2016. Prior to joining Monash in 2019, she was a Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University of Queensland. She is a Research Affiliate at CESifo and IZA, an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Queensland, and holds affiliations with the ARC Life Course Centre and J-PAL. Megalokonomou participates in research groups including HEELP, DeHiPE, and BET, and serves as PhD Placement Director.

Her research focuses on applied microeconomics, addressing policy-relevant questions in education, migration, and labor economics using large administrative data and survey experiments to examine individuals' perceptions and behaviors. She has received the Young Economist Prize by Unicredit & Universities, a Faculty Excellence Award for Early Career Research, a Rising Star Honorary Prize, and an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant in 2025 for “Women in STEM: The Longer-Term Effects of Teachers”. Megalokonomou's publications feature in top journals including American Economic Review, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, Economic Journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal of Human Resources, European Economic Review, and Journal of Public Economics. Key works include “Human Capital Depreciation and Returns to Experience” (American Economic Review, 2022), “Comparative Advantage and Gender Gap in STEM” (Journal of Human Resources, 2022), “Persistency in Teachers' Grading Biases and Effect on Longer Term Outcomes” (American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2024), “Female Neighbors and Careers in Science” (Research Policy, 2025), and “Top-performing Girls are More Impactful Peer Role Models than Boys” (PNAS, 2025). She joined the editorial board of the Journal of Population Economics as an Associate Editor in 2022 and serves on boards of Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Economic Papers, and Economic Record. Her research has appeared in media outlets such as The Conversation and The Guardian.