Research
Main areas of interest:
Economics of education, Agricultural Economics
Public economics, Policy evaluation
Working Papers
Muddying the waters: How grade distributions change when university exams go online
- with Daniel Montolio (University of Barcelona)
Crop diversification across different farm sizes in the European Union
- with Marzia Freo (JRC and University of Bologna) and Laura Serlenga (JRC and University of Bari)
Size-contingent "Green" obligations and avoidance behavior among EU farmers: lessons from Spanish administrative data
- with Marzia Freo (JRC and University of Bologna) and Laura Serlenga (JRC and University of Bari)
(Manuscript coming soon)
Academic Publications
- with Luis E. Rojas (MOVE, UAB and BSE)
Journal of Industrial and Business Economics [Vol. 49, Jul. 2022, pp.509-43]
- with Fabio Sánchez Torres (University of Los Andes)
Economic Analysis and Policy [Vol. 73, Mar. 2022, pp.62-93]
Media coverage (in Spanish): "El Espectador", June 10th 2017
- with Daniel Montolio (University of Barcelona)
Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization [Vol. 191, Nov. 2021, pp.97-126]
Media coverage (in Catalan): "5centims.cat", March 18th 2021 Article
IZA Journal of Labor Economics [Vol. 9 Issue 1, Mar. 2020]
Media coverage (in Spanish): "Nada Es Gratis", February 20th 2020 Article
Policy Publications
JRC Technical Report JRC135190 (2023) - Publications Office of the European Union
Other work in progress
The effect of high speed railways on local development
- with Federico Boffa, Eugenio Levi and Steven Stillman
Teacher allocation across geographical clusters
- with Luis E. Rojas and Antonio Miralles
Female representation and gender violence
Refereeing Service
Review of Economic Studies // Journal of Public Economics // Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization // German Economic Review // Labour Economics // Papers in Regional Science // IZA Journal of Labor Economics // LABOUR // Social Science and Medicine // Local Government Studies // Statistical Journal of the IAOS
Unpublished work
(pre-PhD work)
Sibling Effects in Cognitive Achievement - Are Smart Brothers and Sisters Good for You? (SSRN Working Paper: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2908145)
In this paper I investigate whether children's cognitive achievement is influenced by the cognitive achievement of their siblings. I apply system GMM to estimate a dynamic model of cognitive skill production. I allow for endogeneity of sibling performance and of other regressors, for reciprocal influence between younger and older sibling, for unobserved individual and family effects, and for state dependence of cognitive achievement. I find evidence for positive and significant sibling effects on both verbal reasoning and mathematics test scores, with results consistent across the two skills. My results support theories of cumulative achievement processes, as current achievements are shown to depend on past ones. Influence goes from older siblings to younger ones and viceversa, in contradiction with the assumption of unidirectional effect from old to young, which underlies identification in related studies.