Academy Fellow

Lata Gangadharan is a Professor of Economics at Monash University. She is an experimental economist and is interested in how people and organisations respond to different kinds of incentives. This interest has led her to use and extend the methodologies developed in the field of experimental economics to several areas. For example, she has used novel experimental and behavorial methods to evaluate the effectiveness of environmental policies and to understand the implications of positive (charitable giving behaviour) and negative social preferences (envy, corruption).

Her research is both of general and specialist interest. Her papers have been published in top general interest journals (e.g. Science, Nature Communications, American Economic Review, European Economic Review) and in the best field journals in public, environmental, and experimental economics (Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management and Experimental Economics). Her research is well cited and has received significant media attention. In her editorial capacities she has played a significant role in shaping the direction of academic research and in mentoring junior researchers.

Monash University (2010 – current);

University of Melbourne (1997 – 2009)

Cason, T. N., L. Friesen & L. Gangadharan (2016): Regulatory Performance of Audit Tournaments and Compliance Observability. European Economic Review, 85, 288-306.

Gangadharan, L., T. Jain, P. Maitra & J. Vecci (2016): Social Identity and Governance: The Behavioral Response to Female Leaders. European Economic Review, 90, 302-325.

Abbink, K., L. U. Dasgupta, Gangadharan, L. and T. Jain (2014): Letting the Briber go Free: An Experiment on Mitigating Harassment Bribes. Journal of Public Economics, 111, pp. 17-28.

Cameron, L., N. Erkal, L. Gangadharan and X. Meng (2013): Little Emperors: Behavioural Impacts of China’s One-Child Policy. Science. 22 February 2013,

339(6122), pp. 953-957.

Erkal, N., L. Gangadharan & N. Nikiforakis (2011): Relative Earnings and Giving in a Real-Effort Experiment, American Economic Review. 101(7): 3330–48.