Paula Nagler is the Head of the Urban Economics & Governance Department at the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS) at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Her research focuses on urban entrepreneurship and labour markets, and inclusive innovation. Paula has approximately 15 years of experience with public policy analysis, impact evaluation and micro-data analysis in a developing context. She has worked extensively with household surveys and administrative databases. At IHS, she coordinates the Urban Data Analytics course and teaches in the specialization track on Urban Economic Development and in the Research Design course. She further leads a projects on inequality for the German Development Cooperation (GIZ).

Previous to her position in Rotterdam, she worked at Maastricht University and in various international organizations (IDB, UNDP, OECD) and consulted for the World Bank, UNIDO, and political foundations. Paula obtained her PhD in Public Policy and Policy Analysis at the United Nations University-MERIT (Maastricht, NL). During the PhD, she also taught various courses in public economics, econometrics and public policy analysis. The geographical focus of her work is on Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Paula joined IZA as a Research Affiliate in April 2015.