The EEA is delighted to announce that Professors Maria Bigoni (University of Bologna) and Paula Gobbi (Université libre de Bruxelles) are the recipients of the 2026 edition of the Role Models in Economics Award - the 4th edition of the award through which the EEA recognizes colleagues who are both true scholars and outstanding contributors to the public good in the Economics profession. The 2026 Award is for economists 45 years and younger.
Maria Bigoni is a leader in the experimental study of cooperation in repeated social dilemmas; her research sheds light on (among many other things) the effectiveness of policies to deter collusion, the origins of cultural differences in levels of trust, and the role of money as a mechanism for monitoring economic agents’ past conduct. She has directed research programs on the effects of economic inequality on cooperation and the development of preferences and prosociality among young children.
Maria’s contributions to the public good have taken many forms. As deputy-director of her department and director of the PhD program, she was an important contributor to the success of the Bologna Economics Department in obtaining two Italian Department of Excellence grants, and she helped to design a successful new interdisciplinary doctoral program in Public Governance, Management, and Policy. Her nominators praise her very strongly not only for the unusually large numbers of PhD and masters students she has supervised but also for her continued devotion to the doctoral program as a whole, ensuring that every student was appropriately supported.
Maria has also made major contributions to research infrastructure in Bologna and in Italy more generally. She was a key player in the establishment and maintenance of the Bologna Laboratory for Experiments in Social Science (BLESS), which serves both Bologna researchers and a broader community of researchers in Italy. She designed Poolpo, a national Italian platform for experimental economics and social science research, which connects researchers to a large, diverse participant pool for online surveys and experiments, as well as facilitating in-person lab studies through an associated network of labs and research centers across Italy. In addition, Maria oversaw the development and testing via RCT of a parenting app, MinUTo, for the general public, inspired by research findings.
Paula Gobbi is a leader in the fields of demographic economics, economic history, development, and growth. She currently directs an ERC-funded research program examining the interactions between inheritance rules and practices and demographic changes, and how these interactions have shaped the process of economic development. These explorations are based on new databases she is creating for Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa and on new structural models linking inheritance, family structures, marriage, and fertility.
Paula’s contributions to the public good have also taken many forms. She is currently serving as the Director of ECARES, after having spent five years as its financial director. Like Maria, she has supervised an unusually large number of PhD and masters students. Her nominator described her list of achievements and contributions as an inspiration for her whole department.
Paula has also been extremely active as an organizer of European conferences, workshops, and panels; these efforts, alongside her extensive mentoring of students and postdocs, have helped to create a strong network in Europe of researchers in demographic economics and economic history. Paula’s organizing efforts have also helped to raise the profile of interdisciplinary research in economics.
Many thanks also to the Award Committee: Margaret (Meg) Meyer, Julia Cagé, Dorothea Kübler, Anna Salomons and Bertil Tungodden.