Ornella Darova

About me

I am a PhD Candidate in Economics at the University of Pennsylvania. I will be joining the Harvard Center for International Development as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Fall 2025 and the Department of Economics at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa as an assistant professor in Fall 2026.

My primary research interests lie in empirical microeconomics with a focus on development economics, the economics of education and social program evaluation.

My current research combines structural, experimental and quasi-experimental methods to study the key determinants of cognitive achievement outcomes and social dynamics in multilingual and multiethnic settings.