Welcome to my web page

I'm a senior economist at the D.G. for Economics, Statistics and Research of the Bank of Italy. My job is to monitor and analyze the changes in the structure of the Italian Economy, in particular of its private business environment. My research focuses on economic and productivity growth. I am currently working on firms' demographics and dynamics and on the determinants and the effects of technological adoption. This is my personal page and you can find my recent research papers.


Publications

The heterogeneous response of domestic sales and exports to bank credit shocks. With Ines Buono, Journal of International Economics, Vol. 113, Pages 55-73, 2018. Link to the paper

New evidence on the evolution of the anchoring of inflation expectations. With Ines Buono. Journal of Macroeconomics, Vol. 57, Pages 39-54, 2018. Link to the paper

Explaining waek investment growth after the Great Recession: a macro-panel analysis. With Ines Buono. In International Macroeconomics in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis, Springer-Verlag, 2018. Link

Institution-Driven Comparative Advantage and Organizational Choice. With Shon Ferguson. Journal of International Economics, Vol. 90, No. 1, 2013. Link to the paper

Working Papers

Measuring Market Power: Macro and micro evidence from Italy. With E. Ciapanna, A. Linarello and G. Rovigatti, 2022. Link to the paper

Ownership, Governance, Management and Firm Performance: Evidence from Italian Firms. With A. Baltrunaite, A. Linarello and S. Mocetti, 2002. Lik to the paper

Closing the Italian digital gap: The role of skills, intangibles, and policies. With F. Calvino, S. DeSantis, I. Desnoyers-James, I. Goretti, S. Lombardi, F. Manaresi†, G. Perani. OECD policy paper, forthcoming

Firm characteristics and potential output: a growth accounting approach. With D. Fantino and A. Mistretta, Bank of Italy's Occasional Paper Series, 2021, n.616. Link to the paper

Bank credit, liquidity and firm-level investment: are recessions different? Bank of Italy’s Working Paper Series, 2019, n. 1239. Link to the paper

Heterogeneous Firms and Credit Frictions: a General Equilibrium Analysis of Market Entry Decision. Bank of Italy’s Working Paper Series, n. 940, November 2013. Link to the paper

Quantifying productivity effects of GVCs. With Filippo Vergara Caffarelli, INET Working Paper Series NO:2015/21, University of Cambridge. Link to the paper

Firm exit dynamics: Evidence on Italian Firms. With Audinga Baltrunaite, work in progress

Start-ups and Employment: growth strategies and challenges. Evidence on Italian Firms. With Giulia Bovini and Francesco Manaresi, work in progress

A missing generation: the effect of the Covid-19 shock on firm dynamincs. With F. Lotti, F. Manaresi and F. Scoccianti, work in progress. Link to lavoce (italian only)

North-South Trade with Heterogeneous Firms. Mimeo 2012 Link to the paper


Contacts:

D.G. for Economics, Statistics and Research

Structural Economic Analysis Directorate

Bank of Italy

Via Nazionale 91

00184 Roma, Italy

Research and Publications:

Short Bio

I was born in Ferrara (Italy), a beautiful city in northern east corner of Emilia Romagna. Despite strong ties at the age of 19 I left for Milan to be trained as an Economist and then proceeded abroad. I hold a Ph.D. in Economics from the Stockholm School of Economics. During my graduate studies, I held visiting positions at the Toulouse School of Economics and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 2010 to 2012 I worked as an Economist in Frankfurt at the D.G. of Economics of the European Central Bank. On September 2012 I happily moved back to Italy to work as an Economist at the Bank of Italy. Between 2016 and 2017 I was on leave to work as an economic consultant for the Italian Prime Minister. I currently live in Rome with my daughter Mia, my son Luca and my husband Emilio, whom I met many years ago while an undergrad at Bocconi University.

sara.formai@bancaditalia.it / sara.formai@gmail.com

Important Notice: The views and opinions expressed on this website are strictly those of page author. The contents of this website have not been reviewed or approved by Banca d'Italia.