Rossella Calvi is an Assistant Professor of Economics. She joined Rice in 2016 after receiving her PhD from Boston College. Her areas of expertise are development economics, applied microeconomics, and labor. In June 2016, she received the UniCredit & Universities Best Paper Award on Gender Economics for her work "Why Are Older Women Missing in India? The Age Profile of Bargaining Power and Poverty”.

Her research focuses on issues related to gender inequality, poverty, health and education in developing countries. Some of her recent work looks at intra-household resource allocation in India and its effects on women’s health and poverty. She is also interested in economic history and studies the role that historical institutions play in determining contemporary outcomes.