Marco Casari is Professor of Political Economy at the Department of Economics of the University of Bologna. He earned a Ph.D. in Social Sciences from the California Institute of Technology and held positions at Ohio State University, Autonoma University in Barcelona, and Purdue University.

Casari's research focuses on the foundations of cooperation in societies from both an institutional and a behavioral perspectives. He has extensively employed lab experiments to study the emergence of social norms and institutions in small and large-scale societies. He has studied the community management of the commons through first-hand collection of historical data.

Recent publications have appeared, among others, in Econometrica, Games and Economic Behavior, Experimental Economics, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, the American Economic Review, Journal of Economic History, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organizations, Economic Journal. Casari has received a prestigious grant from the European Research Council and financial support from the Russel Sage Foundation, the European Commission, the Italian Government, and other public and private institutions.

He joined IZA as a Research Fellow in November 2012.