Bandiera's research focuses on
development economics,
labour economics and
organisational economics.
Management in the public sector Much of Bandiera's research examines public service delivery in the developing world, in particular the question of how to reduce corruption and ensure that the incentives of civil servants align with those of the beneficiaries they serve. In work with
Nava Ashraf, Edward Davenport, and Scott Lee, Bandiera shows through a
randomised controlled trial that advertising career advancement opportunities in a health-worker recruitment drive in
Zambia increases the quality of those hired, with better performance on training exams and similar degrees of pro-sociality. She also finds that these "go getters" are more productive, conducting more community health meetings and home visits.
Management in the private sector Bandiera has also pursued research on management in the private and non-profit sectors. In work with
Imran Rasul and Iwan Barankay, Bandiera partnered with a British
fruit farm to randomly allocate labourers to two different compensation schemes: one in which workers receive bonuses based on their "relative" performance, and one in which they do not. They find that compensation contracts based on relative performance lead to lower productivity, Finally, in work with Andrea Prat, Stephen Hansen, and Raffaella Sadun, Bandiera leverages detailed data on the diaries of 1,114
CEOs across six countries and
machine learning algorithms to classify corporate leadership into archetypes. She shows that executives can broadly be classified into "leaders", who meet primarily with other executives, and "managers", who spend more time with direct reports and other employees. Her work suggests that firms that hire "leaders" are more successful downstream.
Gender pay gap Department of Economics Bandiera has also pursued research on the
gender pay gap in the public and private sectors. In 2016, the
London School of Economics (LSE) commissioned her to conduct an internal review of the school's gender pay gap. The report found that among LSE academics with similar research productivity and levels of experience, women earned 11% less on average, with inequities particularly pronounced at the senior level. In response to the report, the university encouraged academic departments to nominate women for pay raises. For example, in Pakistan, where women's labour force participation is low, women make more than men. Bandiera and her co-authors suggest that this is because in countries with high barriers to women's entry into the labour market, only the most talented women self-select into formal employment. == Recognition ==