The Two, or Rather Three, Careers of Antonio Merlo
Plan B never existed for Antonio Merlo. From the moment he enrolled at Bocconi University to study Economic and Social Sciences at the beginning of the 80s, he always knew that his future would be an academic career, “even if,” he explains, “nothing was planned. It wasn't a subject I discussed at dinner with my family”. Antonio Merlo is currently a full professor of economics (his areas of scientific interest include political economics, policy analysis, public economics, the theory and applications of bargaining and empirical microeconomics) and Dean of the Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz School of Arts and Sciences at New York University, and will be President of Drexel University in Philadelphia starting next July.
An appointment attained after a career spent entirely in the United States, a continuous crescendo between academic appointments and managerial roles. Exactly what he wanted. “The DES program at Bocconi was a fascinating course because it combined the study of economics with subjects such as philosophy, sociology and political science. Something very innovative at the time”, he recalls. But not only that. ‘There were a 100 of us, a sort of extended high school class, and we didn't even have to move from classroom to classroom as is usually the case in university, the professors came to us. A wonderful experience, a confirmation of Bocconi's reputation which had prompted me to choose it’.
Once he graduated, and increasingly determined to follow his vocation, Antonio Merlo decided to move to the United States. At the time, more than ever, the US was the best destination for those who wanted to pursue a career in academia: “Alberto Alesina had been one of the pioneers, but it was Guido Tabellini who advised me to do a doctorate in the United States. And so I did, at New York University, where I am still now”. Although, obviously, his career path has taken him to many universities in the US: Merlo in fact began his academic career in 1992 at the University of Minnesota, where he was promoted to associate professor in 1998. Between 1998 and 2000 he held a joint appointment at the Department of Economics and the Department of Politics at New York University. In 2000 he joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, where he held the Lawrence Klein Chair of Economics and directed the Penn Institute for Economic Research (PIER). In 2014 he joined Rice University, where he was Dean of the Rice University School of Social Sciences from 2016 to 2019. In 2019 he came full circle, returning to his alma mater as Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of NYU's Faculty of Arts and Science and Professor of Economics.
An alternation of academic and managerial roles, almost always carried out simultaneously. And Merlo gives an interesting interpretation of this: “There are two main reasons. The first is that I have always enjoyed creating a group, ‘teaming up’ to use a language that refers to sport. The second is that, as far as my field of study is concerned, I have always dealt with institutions, trying to understand in particular why certain institutions and organizations work and others don't. Being in an administrative role is a bit of a direct application of the studies I have conducted. It's as if I were experimenting on myself”. Antonio Merlo will be President and CEO of Drexel University. But what kind of university is Drexel University? “Drexel is an urban university, in close contact with the community. But above all, it embodies the value of the university as an engine of social mobility”, Merlo continues, “so the fundamental characteristic is that it admits students who deserve it without necessarily looking at their wallet. It is also one of the universities with the highest percentage of first-generation students, i.e. students who are the first in their family to attend university. It's a bit like my story”.
If Antonio Merlo's two careers, as a scholar and manager, would be enough for anyone, he actually has a third one, even if abandoned (temporarily?): water polo coach. “I started swimming and then switched to water polo a few years later, always in Italy”, he says. “But it was in the US that my coaching career began, a bit by chance. I was already a full professor at the University of Pennsylvania, at the height of my career, and to keep in shape I trained with the water polo team. The coach at the time was called to join the staff of the women's national team and asked me to take his place. It was supposed to be a temporary assignment... but then...” Coaching became more than a passion, which he continued at Rice University, where he had moved in the meantime. “Then came Covid, which turned everything upside down. And it put an end to my coaching career.”
In his role as President, he will have a privileged view of Italy and Europe: “I strongly believe in the exchange of researchers, professors and students. Economics is an international discipline, which lends itself to this. But above all, it is science in general that for me has no boundaries”.