#  Melissa Dell 

Andrew E. Furer Professor of Economics

 

 

 



   ![Melissa Dell headshot](/sites/g/files/omnuum5991/files/styles/hwp_4_5__320x400/public/2025-08/Dell_Melissa004R.jpg?h=ea7a7058&itok=VNr3XXuc) 

 



 

 location\_on Littauer Center M-24Harvard UniversityCambridge, MA 02138 

 smartphone [617-384-7272](tel:617-384-7272) 

 email <melissadell@fas.harvard.edu> 

 laptop\_windows [Personal Website](https://dell.scholars.harvard.edu/) 

 

 



 

Melissa Dell is a former Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows and a Global Scholar in the Institutions, Organizations and Growth program at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Melissa's research focuses on the interplay between the state, non-state actors, and economic development. In particular, she has examined the relationship between government crackdowns and drug violence in Mexico, as well as the persistence of poverty in Mexico and Peru. She holds a Ph.D. in economics from MIT, a Bachelor's degree summa cum laude from Harvard University and an M. Phil. with Distinction from the University of Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar.

**Staff Support:** [Ursula Ferraro](https://economics.harvard.edu/people/ursula-ferraro)



 

 

 





 

 

- ## Economic Fields
    
     [Economic Development](/economic-fields/economic-development) [Economic History](/economic-fields/economic-history) [Political Economy](/economic-fields/political-economy)
- ## Faculty Alpha
    
     [A - L](/faculty-alpha/l)
- ## Fields of Interest
    
     [Development Economics](/fields-interest/development-economics) [Political Economy](/fields-interest/political-economy)
- ## People Alpha
    
     [A - E](/people-alpha/a-e)
- ## Role
    
     [Faculty](/people-type/department-faculty)