Elena Simintzi is a Professor of Finance at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill whose research examines how firms respond to labor market frictions, regulation, and technological change. Her work sits at the intersection of finance and labor economics and focuses on understanding how corporate policies affect wages, inequality, and employment outcomes. A significant portion of her research studies pay disparities within firms and evaluates the firm-level effects of regulations designed to reduce wage gaps and promote equity. In addition, she has extensively studied the implications of technological disruption for the workforce. Her work analyzes how firms adopt new technologies and how these choices reshape employment, compensation, and job design, with direct relevance for policymakers concerned with innovation, productivity, and worker protection.
Her research has been published in leading academic journals, including the Review of Financial Studies, the Journal of Finance, and the Journal of Financial Economics. It has also informed public debate, with features in the Harvard Business Review and coverage by major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Economist, and CNN Business. She is a Research Fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) and a Research Member of the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI). She received her PhD in Finance from London Business School.