Amanda Pallais is the Robert C. Waggoner Professor of Economics at Harvard University. Her research focuses on the barriers preventing workers from achieving efficient employment outcomes and students from optimally investing in human capital.

Her research has explored the extent to which the cost of developing a reputation acts as a barrier preventing workers from entering the labor market, how small changes in college application fees can dramatically affect the college application choices of low-SES students, and how motivating high school students with merit scholarships for college can substantially improve their high school performance. Currently, she is working on a field experiment in France analyzing the possible effects of discrimination on the job performance of women and minorities and a Blueprint Labs project evaluating whether college scholarships can increase college matriculation and improve the job prospects of low-income students.

Pallais received her B.A. in Economics and Mathematics from the University of Virginia in 2006 and her Ph.D. in Economics from MIT in 2011.