Jérôme Adda received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Paris (Sorbonne), following studies in biology at AgroParisTech and in economics and statistics at ENSAE in Paris. He has been a Professor of Economics at Bocconi University since 2014, where he also served as Vice-Rector from 2018 to 2022. He is currently the Research Director at the Rockwool Foundation Berlin and Programme Director for Labour Economics at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). Prior to his position at Bocconi, he held professorships at the European University Institute in Florence and University College London, and was a visiting professor at UC Berkeley (2006–07) and Princeton University (2024).

He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and has served as Managing Editor of the Review of Economic Studies from 2013 to 2017, and again in 2021.

His research spans Health Economics, Labour Economics, Family Economics, and Macroeconomics. He has made significant contributions to understanding the impact of public policies on health behaviours, the dynamics of disease transmission, the relationship between income and health, the interaction between fertility and careers, and the influence of human capital on career paths and wage growth across the life cycle. His work has been widely published in leading journals including the Journal of Political Economy, American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economic Studies, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and in interdisciplinary outlets.