Professor Paola Sapienza

Paola Sapienza is the J-P Conte Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. She is also a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a research affiliate of the Center for Economic Policy Research, and a fellow of the European Corporate Governance Institute.

Sapienza’s main research focuses on the impact of cultural norms on economic decisions and outcomes. She applies these concepts to financial development, political economy, and education. Her work in financial economics sheds light on the interactions among trust, social capital, and civic capital and how cultural attitudes impact financial and economic development. Her work in education investigates how vertical and horizontal cultural transmission of preferences may affect educational outcomes. Sapienza’s work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and The Economist.