Anita Rao studies quantitative marketing and empirical industrial organization with specific interests in online content, digital distribution, emerging markets, and research and innovation intensive industries. In her current work she analyzes how changes brought about by the digital world are shaping online purchase and rental markets. Another stream of research analyzes the impact of competition and FDA regulation on R&D investment decisions by firms in the pharmaceutical industry.
Rao holds a PhD in marketing from Stanford University and a MS in transportation engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She earned a Bachelor of Technology in civil engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), in Madras, India.
Prior to her doctoral studies, she worked in the Customer and Brand Science practice at Mercer Management Consulting.