Antonio Merlo
Ph.D., Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science
Antonio Merlo rejoined NYU as the Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of NYU’s Faculty of Arts and Science in July of 2019. Antonio received his Ph.D. from NYU and was previously a member of NYU’s Economics and Politics faculty. Before returning to NYU, he was the Dean of the School of Social Sciences at Rice University, where he was also the George A. Peterkin Professor and Founding Director of the Rice Initiative for the Study of Economics as well as the head coach of the men's and women's water polo teams. Between 2000 and 2014, he also held leadership roles at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was the Director of the Penn Institute for Economics Research, the Lawrence R. Klein Professor and Chair of the Department of Economics, and the head coach of the men's water polo team.
Antonio is a distinguished political economist. His areas of scholarly interest include political economy, policy analysis, public economics, bargaining theory and applications, and empirical microeconomics. His research interests include the economics of crime, voting, the career decisions of politicians, the formation and dissolution of coalition governments, the industrial organization of the political sector, household bargaining, and the study of the residential housing market. He has published numerous articles in the leading economics journals, including the American Economic Review, Econometrica, the Journal of Political Economy, and the Review of Economic Studies. In 2018, he authored an innovative political economy textbook for undergraduates, "Political Economy and Policy Analysis" (Routledge). His numerous awards and honors include being elected a Fellow of the Econometric Society; the Pareto Lecture in Economics and Social Sciences; being a Peden Senior Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge; and the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching. In addition, he has been the recipient of the Coach of the Year Award for the Collegiate Water Polo Association in 2013 (Men’s Mid-Atlantic Division), 2017 (Women’s Texas Division), and 2018 (Men’s Texas Division).
A first-generation college graduate, Merlo received his undergraduate degree summa cum laude in economics and social sciences from Bocconi University of Italy in 1987. He received his Ph.D. in economics from NYU in 1992, where he received the Dean’s Outstanding Dissertation Award. He also received an honorary M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in 2000.