Alessandra Cassar

Alessandra Cassar is Professor of Economics at the University of San Francisco. She received her M.A. in Economics from Bocconi University, Milan, in 1996, and her Ph.D. in International Economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 2001. Alessandra is passionate about investigating the origins of preferences and their role in development. Through laboratory and field experiments across the world, her studies focus on the contributions of biological and cultural evolutionary processes to shaping human behavior. Her current research concentrates on the under-studied areas of female competitiveness; the consequences of conflict and disaster victimization for altruism, trust, religiosity, risk and time preferences; and the role of social networks for economic outcomes. Alessandra is also researching how to incorporate that knowledge to design programs to overcome individuals’ internal constraints to support poverty alleviation.