Full professor of Economics at the University of Bologna since 2021.
Research interests
Political Economy (Information Transparency, Historical and Political Roots of Development).
Microeconomic Theory (Dynamic Price Effects).
Social Economics (Social Capital, Social Interactions, Moral Values, Substance Use and Abuse).
Crime Economics (Social and Moral Enforcement of Law, Economic Roots and Political Consequences of Organized Crime and Terrorism).
Education and academic career
After undergraduate studies in Bocconi, he obtained a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Pavia in 2003 and one from Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona) in 2007. In the middle, he spent one year at the University of Bonn.
He became Assistant Professor in 2005 at the University of Padua. In 2008 he moved to Bologna, where in 2014 he became Associate Professor.
Selected publications
Substitution Effects in Intertemporal Problems (with D. Dragone), American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, 2020, in press.
Terrorism Risk and Democratic Preferences in Pakistan (with F. U. Rehman), Journal of Development Economics, 124, 2017, 95-106, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2016.09.003
Poor Institutions, Rich Mines: Resource Curse in the Origins of the Sicilian Mafia (with P. Buonanno, R. Durante and G. Prarolo), Economic Journal, 125(586), 2015, F175-F202
Market Distortions and Government Transparency (with F. Albornoz and J. Esteban), Journal of the European Economic Association, 12(1), 2014, 200-222
‘Thou Shalt Not Covet’: Prohibitions, Temptation and Moral Values (with M. Cervellati), Journal of Public Economics, 103, 2013, 15-28
Does Social Capital Reduce Crime? (with P. Buonanno and D. Montolio), Journal of Law and Economics, 52(1), 2009, 145-170
Research
He spent research periods abroad in Osnabrück (1999), Berlin (FU, 2012) and Buenos Aires (UTDT, 2007, and UdeSA 2016-2020 and 2023-2024).
He has participated in various research projects of national interest funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research, of which the latest is a PRIN 2020 (coordinated by M. Cervellati) on long-term development in Europe.
He co-organized (with A. Bisin and T. Verdier) a conference in 2008 in Milan on the economics of culture, institutions and crime, and one in 2019 in Bologna (with M. Cervellati, S. Lazzaroni, M. Onorato, L. Pascali and M. Squicciarini) on long-term development in Europe.
He presented his research in dozens of international conferences and scholarly seminars.
Teaching
He taught several courses at different levels, both in Italy and abroad, including Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, Game Theory, Labour Economics and International Economics. He is currently teaching Macroeconomics to undergraduate students, Microeconomics (and a module of Environmental and Resource Economics) to Master's students, and Behavioral Law & Economics to Ph.D. students.
Institutional activity
He co-organized DSE seminars from 2009 to 2011. Since 2015 he has participated on various occasions in the orientation activities for high school students. He was a member of the Department Board from 2015 to 2018 and of the Doctoral Academic Board from 2015 to 2022. He was DSE's Head of Communication between 2021 and 2024 and acts since 2024 as Deputy Director and Head of Research. He participated in the recruitment activities both as a member of evaluation commissions (for research fellowships, RTDA, RTDB and RTT), and through job market scouting, which he coordinated in 2019 and since 2022.
