Spotlight on our Faculty
Mallesh Pai, Assistant Professor of Economics
Research Interests: Mechanism Design/Auction Theory,
Economics of Privacy, Social Networks/Social Learning, and
Statistical Decision Theory
Mallesh Pai came to Rice in 2016 from the University of
Pennsylvania. He is a prominent researcher and outstanding
teacher, and received the Ralph O’Connor Award for Distinction
in Teaching and Research in Economics in 2018. Mallesh’s
research focuses on issues in mechanism design, auction theory,
the economics of privacy, social networks, social learning, and
statistical decision theory. He received his Ph.D. in 2010 from
Northwestern University.
Mallesh has taught two undergraduate courses at Rice: Econ
470, Market Design, an upper-level elective, and ECON 496, Research in Economic Theory, a capstone course for MTEC majors. Both
courses examine various aspects of how innovations in modern economics, as an empirical science, are used to understand any system or
process that determines who gets what by matching demand with supply as a market.
How did you first become interested in
economics? Can you give a brief summary of your
field of research?
I majored in computer engineering in
undergrad and liked it, but there were a
lot of policy changes going on in India
during that time that fascinated me. In the
fall of my junior year, I attended a game
theory conference in Mumbai. All of the
big names in game theory were there; John
Nash, who had already won the Nobel
Prize by that point, and Lloyd Shapley,
who everyone predicted would (and did
soon after) win the Nobel Prize, were both
there. Before that conference, I had taken
zero courses in game theory and only
one elective in economics. Afterward, I
ended up moving some things around and
applying to graduate school in economics! Broadly speaking, I’m an economic
theorist, which means that I believe in the
power of theory and simple models to give
us real insights into the real world. I work
in a field that’s called mechanism design,
which focuses on designing institutions that
help us achieve goals we set as a society in
situations where the necessary information
and actions that people need to take in
order to achieve those goals are disparate.
Essentially, I work on figuring out how
to design institutions that align people’s
incentives with the incentives of society.
Do you think your computer engineering
background has helped you as an
economist?
Research in economics has become
very quantitative, and my engineering
training provided me with math skills,
which has helped a lot. Moreover, the
research that I’m most interested in sits
at the intersection of economics and
computer science. I find it beneficial that
I can understand both the economics and
computer science aspects of my work. As
an example, in the past I’ve worked with
Google and Microsoft on ad auctions that
they designed for their search engines.
What are some of your own research
projects?
My own research looks at the impact of
computers and the internet on modern
society. With the innovations of the
information and internet revolutions of
the past 20 years, we can design and
execute markets that we couldn’t dream
of implementing previously. Recently,
I’ve been interested in the question of
whether machine learning algorithms
that are designed to help humans make
important decisions, such as approving a
person’s loan application, can learn how
to discriminate. Part of the reason that we
have moved away from people making
these decisions and toward machines
making them is accuracy; another is that
machines presumably do not suffer from
the same biases that humans do. Of course,
the answer to this question fundamentally
depends on the design of the algorithm, but
it also relates crucially to the type of market
and economy in which these algorithms are
operating.
You have recently been appointed
Director of Managerial Studies. What
are your plans for that program?
Lots of exciting things ahead! In the short-
term, the plan is to refresh the curriculum.
Several departments around the university
have revamped their course offerings,
and in light of that we’re tweaking the
major a little: using the practicums offered
by the school of social sciences as the
capstone class, updating the core statistics
requirement, etc. In the longer run, we’re
exploring offering a “full” major, that is
a major that can be taken as a standalone,
while keeping the interdisciplinary flavor of
the major. There’s also a few social events
planned so majors and prospective majors
get to meet and mingle. Professors Schaefer
(CAAM), Schwindt-Bayer (Political
Science), and Zodrow (Economics) have
graciously agreed to be part of an advisory
committee and provide adult supervision
while I tinker with things. If you have
thoughts or suggestions, stop by!
For more information on Professor Pai’s
research projects, including his current working
papers and his C.V., see the Faculty Page on the
Economics Department website.
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