Paola Valbonesi is the Head of the Department of Economics and Management of the University of Padua since September 2021. She has been a Full Professor in the Department since 2018.

She served as Researcher at the University of Verona, Associate Professor at the University of Padova; and Visiting Professor at the HIgher School of Economics - National Research University, Russian Federation; Paris School of Economic and Université Paris 1 - Pantheon Sorbonne; University of Nottingham; University of Leicester; UniversityPompeu Fabra, Barcelona; University of Copenhagen, CIE - Centre of Industrial Economics; University of York; Academy of Science, Department of Economics, Budapest.

Her research interests range from Industrial organization to Public Economics, with a focus on the design of efficient rules and economic incentives, primarily where government intervention plays a role. In 1995, she earned a Master in Arts and a Ph.D in Economics from the European University Institute - EUI (Firenze).