Laura Panza is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics within the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Melbourne. She earned her PhD in Economics from La Trobe University in 2012, a Master's degree (Coursework and Research) from the Institute for Advanced Study in Pavia, and a Bachelor's Degree with Honours. Her research specializations encompass economic history, development economics, applied microeconomics, and the economic and social history of the Middle East, with a focus on Near East economies in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Panza's work examines themes such as market integration, trade, conflict, inequality, and the impacts of historical shocks on economic outcomes.

Panza has an extensive publication record in leading journals. Key publications include 'Fanning the Flames: Rainfall Shocks, Inter-Ethnic Income Inequality, and Conflict Intensification in Mandate Palestine' with Eik Leong Swee (Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2023), 'Overcoming the Egyptian Cotton Crisis in the Interwar Period: The Role of Irrigation, Drainage, New Seeds, and Access to Credit' with Ulaş Karakoç (Economic History Review, 2020), 'Globalization and the Near East: A Study of Cotton Market Integration in Egypt and Western Anatolia' (Journal of Economic History, 2013), 'Religion and Persecution' (Journal of Economic Growth, 2023), and 'The Intergenerational Health Effects of Forced Displacement: Japanese American Incarceration during WWII' with Daniel Grossman and Umair Khalil (Journal of Public Economics, 2025). Additional contributions cover Atlantic trade's role in reducing European conflict, Ottoman-European market linkages from 1469-1914, and community-building in Mandatory Palestine. Her scholarship has accumulated over 495 citations on Google Scholar. Panza has contributed CEPR Discussion Papers and VoxEU columns on topics including historical anti-fascism in Italy, commodity market disintegration in the Near East, and the health legacies of WWII incarceration. She received the Larry Neal Prize in 2025 for the best article in Explorations in Economic History. Panza has provided expert commentary on historical economic events, such as the 1970s oil shock and inequality lessons from Australia's convict era.

Professional Email: laura.panza@unimelb.edu.au