Dr. Wagner has worked for the United Nations Headquarters, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and Mannheim Research Institute for the Economics of Aging. Her doctoral dissertation focused on corruption and rent-seeking in Romania, specifically on how liberalization and marketization of the state-planned economy have engendered new and more pernicious forms of corruption. She holds a BA in international economics with cum laude honors from Corvinus University. She also holds an MSc in economics and European studies with summa cum laude honors from Corvinus University and a PhD in Political Science and Political Economy from Carleton University.