Milena Nikolova is currently working as an Assistant Professor (tenure-track) and Rosalind Franklin Fellow at the University of Groningen.

RePEc ranks Nikolova in the top 5% female economists and top 7% among all male and female economists (based on publications in the last 10 years).

Between 2014 and 2017, Dr. Nikolova was a Research Associate at the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) in Bonn, Germany, where she is now a Research Fellow. She is also a Nonresident Fellow at the Brookings Institution and Bruegel, and a Fellow at GLO.

Dr. Nikolova's work has appeared in leading peer-reviewed journals such as World Development, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of Business Venturing, and the Journal of Population Economics.

Dr. Nikolova serves as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Population Economics, Journal of Happiness Studies, and the International Review of Economics.

Milena holds a Ph.D. in public policy from the University of Maryland, College Park (2014).

Milena Nikolova became an IZA Fellow in January 2018.