Political Selection, Media Bias, Applied microeconomics, Policy evaluation.
Articles in Refereed International Journals
Choosing not to lead: Monetary incentives and Political Selection in Local Parliamentary Systems
With Fabio Cerina and Marco Nieddu
European Journal of Political Economy, (in press) (pdf) (published version)
People inflows as a pandemic trigger: Evidence from a quasi-experimental study
With Marco Delogu, Marta Meleddu and Giovanni Sotgiu
Economics & Human Biology, (in press) (published version)
Working Papers
More Channels, Lower Scores: Entertainment Television and Student Achievement
With Paolo Pinotti, Daniele Checchi and Dimitri Paolini
We study the effects of expanded entertainment television on children’s academic per- formance leveraging the staggered transition from analog to digital TV across Italian provinces between 2008 and 2012, which greatly increased children’s entertainment content, and administrative data on standardized test scores for entire cohorts of pri- mary and middle school students. Availability of digital TV reduced literacy and math performance by 0.08 and 0.12 standard deviations, respectively, implying effects of 0.20 and 0.30 standard deviations among children who acquired access to digital TV along the transition. Effects are larger among younger children and among students attending school only in the morning.
– Awarded the 2025 Young Italian Economist Award by the Italian Economic Association
This study investigates the causal impact of Italy’s transition from analog to digital terrestrial television on fertility rates, exploiting the staggered rollout between 2008 and 2012 as a natural experiment. Employing a difference-in-differences analysis and a doubly robust estimator, I find a statistically significant negative effect of digital terrestrial television adoption on fertility, particularly pronounced in urban, progressive areas characterized by low pre-treatment fertility, fewer young couples with children, higher population density, and taxpayers. While a simple time substitution effect (between television viewing and reproductive activities) is unlikely to be the primary driver, evidence suggests that digital terrestrial television facilitated more individualized viewing experiences through increased household television ownership. The findings point to a significant shift in gender roles following digital terrestrial television adoption: I observe an increase in female labor force participation and a more equitable division of domestic work, with men undertaking a larger share of lighter household tasks.
Online learning during the Covid-19 pandemic: an exploratory survey study for Italian schools
With Adriana Di Liberto and Sara Pau
We used data collected during the COVID-19 pandemic, from March to June 2021, to examine how Italian upper secondary schools reorganized their activities for remote learning (RL) during the lockdown and their perceptions of learning effectiveness. We conducted a three-level survey, administering questionnaires to students (11th and 13th graders), teachers, and school principals at each institution. The final sample includes 11,154 students, 3,905 teachers, and 105 school principals. The data allow us to describe: a) how schools adjusted to the pandemic to ensure learning effectiveness during RL, b) how teachers and school principals managed the transition from traditional to online teaching, c) the perceptions of students, teachers, and school principals regarding the effectiveness of RL. This analysis highlights the challenges Italian schools faced in changing teaching styles during RL and identifies inequality patterns at individual, school type, and regional levels. It also underscores a significant gap between teachers’ perceptions of their digital skills and the actual use of ICT in class during RL activities. Finally, OLS results suggest that in schools implementing innovative online teaching methods and adopting more appropriate online teaching organization, there is a positive and robust relationship with students’ perceptions of learning and other outcomes related to student success.
Work in Progress
The shadow of Rome: Fascism, nation building and the political legacy of history
With Fabio Mariani
In pre-WWII Italy, the Fascist regime mobilized the country’s shared Roman heritage for nation-building, as Roman history provided both a unifying identity and a rich repertoire of nationalist symbols for a country that had remained fragmented since the fall of the Roman Empire. We advance and empirically test the hypothesis that this narrative resonated more strongly in municipalities with a more tangible Roman past–as proxied by the presence of settlements, roads, and archaeological inscriptions–and ultimately translated into greater electoral support for post-Fascist nationalist parties following the return to democracy. Conversely, municipalities with a deeper Roman heritage have been less susceptible to centrifugal political forces and less inclined to support regionalist parties, particularly Lega Nord following its independentist turn. A difference-in-differences analysis corroborates a causal interpretation of our findings, indicating that the effect of Roman history is especially pronounced after episodes of political realignment. We explore potential mechanisms linking Roman heritage to local political identity, establishing that the association between Roman history and right-wing values did not exist prior to Fascist propaganda. We also highlight the role of persistent cultural and ideological values and conduct a placebo exercise on France, showing that in the absence of a political reactivation of history, past Roman presence does not predict the success of nationalist parties. Overall, our analysis underscores the role of institutions in transforming distant historical legacies into durable political identitie
Grants
Visitinps Fellowship 2026 “How Place-Based Child Allowances Shape Fertility and Maternal Labour Supply”
Young Italian Economist Award 2025
PhD scholarship fully funded by RAS – Regione Autonoma della Sardegna (P.O.R. Sardegna F.S.E 2014-2020).