Luis Meloni
Associate Professor of Economics
- University of São Paulo (FEA-USP), Department of Economics
- Former Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow, Bocconi University
Associate Professor of Economics
I am an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of São Paulo. I work on applied microeconomics, using administrative data and quasi-experimental methods to study how policy and regulation change what people and firms actually do.
Much of my work is about the state and its instruments: how environmental rules are enforced, how public procurement is run, how electricity is priced, and what schools do with better management. I also study labor markets, including the early effects of generative AI. A separate strand looks at media — how television, and more recently closed messaging networks, shape political behavior.
Applied Microeconomics · Public Economics · Labor Economics · Political Economy
Publications
Policy Enforcement in the Presence of Organized Crime: Evidence from Rio de Janeiro
Journal of Development Economics, 2023Coverage: Piauí Magazine
Under Pressure: Women's Leadership During the COVID-19 Crisis
Journal of Development Economics, 2022Replication: data & code
Coverage: BBC · Foreign Policy · Folha de São Paulo · Globo News, among others
AEA Registry: AEARCTR-0011363
Presented at: LACEA EGAP session (2024) · Brazilian Econometric Society (2024)
Media Manipulation in Young Democracies: Evidence from the 1989 Brazilian Presidential Election
Comparative Political Studies, 2024Replication: Harvard Dataverse
Working Papers
Do Set-Aside Auctions Pay Off? Evidence from Brazil
Working paperPresented at: European Economic Association (2025) · UPF Applied Seminar (2025) · Charles University (2024), among others
Early Labor-Market Responses to Generative AI in a Developing Country: Evidence from Brazil
Working paperCan Entertainment Media Undermine Dictatorships?
Working paperPresented at: UC Berkeley · Yale University · NYU · LSE STICERD · Bocconi (BREAD/CEPR/PODER) · PUC-Rio, among others
Severing the Pipeline: Platform Bans and Misinformation in Closed Messaging Networks
Working paperWork in Progress
The Impact of Principal Leadership Practices on Student Achievement in Brazilian Schools
The Limits of Time-of-Use Tariffs: Causal Evidence on Load Shifting in Brazil
Invited presentation: USAEE North American Conference (2026)
Behavioral and Economic Impacts of Tariff Innovations in the Brazilian Electricity Market
AEA RCT Registry: AEARCTR-0015658 · AEARCTR-0016313
Who Pays the Bill? Criminal Governance and Non-Technical Losses in Rio de Janeiro
Extreme Heat and Mortality in Brazil
Climate Shocks and Public Procurement: Evidence from Brazil's 2024 Floods
Teaching
I teach undergraduate and graduate courses in Econometrics, Quantitative Methods, and Applied Microeconomics at the University of São Paulo (FEA-USP).
Policy Work
I collaborate with governments, NGOs, and firms on program evaluation, bringing randomized and quasi-experimental methods to policy questions across areas including education, management assessment, and electricity markets. My work includes partnerships with state and municipal governments across Brazil — influencing policy adoption in energy and education in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Distrito Federal, Bahia, and other states.