Research

Working papers under review:

Broadband Internet and Social Capital (with Andrea Geraci, Fabio Sabatini and Tommaso G. Reggiani), Accepted at the Journal of Public Economics (Link)

Abstract: We study how the diffusion of broadband Internet affects social capital using two data sets from the UK. Our empirical strategy exploits the fact that broadband access has long depended on customers' position in the voice telecommunication infrastructure that was designed in the 1930s. The actual speed of an Internet connection, in fact, rapidly decays with the distance of the dwelling from the specific node of the network serving its area. Merging unique information about the topology of the voice network with geocoded longitudinal data about individual social capital, we show that access to broadband Internet caused a significant decline in forms of offline interaction and civic engagement. Overall, our results suggest that broadband penetration substantially crowded out several aspects of social capital.

Identity, Media and Consumer Behavior (with Sandra Sequeira), R&R Review of Economic Studies

Abstract: This paper examines how national identity affects day-to-day economic behavior. We exploit the Brexit referendum as a shock to the salience of identity and measure its impact on consumer choices in the UK, between British and EU grocery products. Drawing from a unique panel dataset with 12 million shoppers, we find that the referendum is associated with an increase in consumption of UK products (6%) and a reduction in demand for EU products (13%). Changes in consumption are driven by identity being top of mind: consumption of UK products is up to 7% higher during intense media discussions on Brexit, particularly during discussions on the politics of regaining sovereignty relative to the economic or social issues associated with Brexit. These findings underscore the importance of national identity in shaping routine economic decisions, and the mediating role that political events and the media can play by keeping identity top of mind.

State Aid Control in the German Broadband Market (with Tommaso Duso and Jo Seldeslachts), R&R Journal of the European Economic Association

Abstract: We provide an evaluation of the impact of public subsidy schemes that aimed to support the development of basic broadband infrastructure in rural areas of Germany. Such subsidies are subject to state aid control by the European Commission (EC). While the EC increasingly recognises the role of economic analysis in controlling public aid to companies, there are to date no full retrospective studies performed on state aid control, especially assessing the so-called balancing test. In this study, we do not only analyse whether the aid was effective in solving a market failure -- low broadband coverage in rural areas -- but also study its impact on competitive outcomes, on both rival firms and consumers. We adopt a difference-in-differences framework after using a matching procedure to account for selection on observables. We find that the aid significantly increased broadband coverage. More importantly, we find that the number of internet providers has significantly increased in the municipalities receiving aid. This additional entry decreased average prices. Therefore, the subsidies complied with EU state aid rules, both in terms of effectiveness and competition.

Published Papers:

Mums Go Online: Is the Internet Changing the Demand for Healthcare?, Forthcoming at Review of Economics and Statistics. (with Sofia Amaral Garcia, Carol Propper and Tommaso Valletti)

Internet and Politics: Evidence from UK Local Elections and Local Government Policies, Review of Economic Studies, Vol 86, Pages: 2092-2135, (2019). (with Alessandro Gavazza and Tommaso Valletti)

Effective Reminders , Management Science, Vol. 63: 2915-2932, (2017). (with Giacomo Calzolari)

Unbundling the incumbent: Evidence from UK broadband , Journal of the European Economic Association, Vol. 13: 330–362, (2015). (with Tommaso Valletti and Frank Verboven)

Cooperation or Competition? A Field Experiment on Non-Monetary Learning Incentives , The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy. Volume 15, Issue 4, Pages 1753–1792 (2015). (with Maria Bigoni, Margherita Fort and Tommaso G. Reggiani)

Work in progress:

Piracy in Digital Markets, a Field Experiment (with Rahul Telang, Micheal Smith and Tommaso Valletti)

Price norms and consumption behavior (with Pedro Bordalo and Sandra Sequeira)

Mimeos:

Stable naives and math sophisticated (first chapter PhD thesis)