Margaret McMillan is an associate professor of economics at Tufts University and a Research Associate in the NBER's program on International Trade and Investment. In 2009, she was appointed the Director of the Development Strategies and Governance Division of the International Food Policy Research Institute.

McMillan holds a Ph.D. in economics (with distinction) from Columbia University an MPA from Princeton University and B.A. in mathematics and economics (summa cum laude) from Boston University. Before coming to academia, she taught math in the Republic of Mali, managed a project for the World Bank in the United Republic of Tanzania and worked as a financial analyst at Lehman Brothers. McMillan's research interests lie in the areas of international trade, investment and development.

McMillan is the recipient of numerous awards for her research. In 2005, she was named the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She is also a recipient of research grants from the National Science Foundation, the Center for Aids Research and the NBER Africa Project. She is currently the principal investigator on a multi-million dollar project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council of the U.K. designed to enhance the understanding of economic growth and structural change in Sub-Saharan Africa. Her work has been featured in the New York Times and the NBER Digest and has been published in a wide range of leading economics journals.