Associate Professor of Economics
PhD Program Director
Department of Economics
College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Silvia Prina Biography
Silvia Prina, PhD
Areas of Expertise
Development Economics
Financial Inclusion
Health
About
Silvia Prina is an Associate Professor in the department of Economics, a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), and a co-editor of Labour Economics. She holds a PhD in Economics from Boston University. Prior to joining Northeastern, Professor Prina was an Associate Professor at Case Western Reserve University. She is a development economist interested in understanding the behavior of poor households for the purpose of uncovering potential strategies to improve their lives. Her first set of papers investigates how financial access, particularly via savings accounts (mobile and not) and digital credit, can affect the saving and investment behavior, networks, preferences, cognitive ability, mental health, and aspirations of the poor. A second set of papers investigates the determinants of investments in human capital and health. Her works feature rigorous empirical methods and the implementation of unique, randomized interventions to answer questions of central importance in development economics. She has been and is working on several field experiments in Mexico and Latin America, Nepal, Tanzania, Uganda, and the U.S.
Publications – Past Three Years
Comola, M., & Prina, S. (2022). The interplay among savings accounts and network-based financial arrangements: Evidence from a field experiment. The Economic Journal, 133(649), 516-535. https://doi.org/10.1093/ej/ueac053
Erten, B., Keskin, P., & Prina, S. (2022). Social distancing, stimulus payments, and domestic violence: Evidence from the U.S. during COVID-19. American Economic Review Papers & Proceedings, 112, 262-266. https://doi.org/10.1257/pandp.20221011.
Comola, M., & Prina, S. (2021). Treatment effect accounting for network changes. Review of Economics and Statistics, 103(3), 497-604. https://doi.org/10.1162/rest_a_00908
Aker, J. C., Prina, S., & Welch, J. (2020). Migration, money transfers and mobile money: Evidence from Niger. American Economic Review Papers & Proceedings, 110, 589-593. https://doi.org/10.1257/pandp.20201085
Carrera, M., Hasan, S. A., & Prina, S. (2020). Do health risk assessments change eating habits at the workplace? Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 172, 236-246. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2020.02.004
Angelucci, M., Prina, S., Royer, H., & Samek, A. (2018). Incentives and uninteded consequences: Spillover effects in food choice. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 11(4), 66-95. https://doi.org/10.1257/pol.20170588