Broadband Internet and Attitudes Toward Migrants: Evidence from Spain (with M. Golin), European Journal of Political Economy, 2024
We examine the effect of broadband Internet penetration on attitudes toward immigrants by combining survey data from Spain with information on the characteristics of the telephone infrastructure. To address endogeneity concerns, we use landlines penetration in 1996 as an instrument for broadband diffusion, and use data from both the pre- and post-Internet period to estimate a difference-in-difference instrumental variable model. We document a positive effect of broadband Internet on attitudes toward immigrants. Looking at mechanisms, broadband Internet is associated with better knowledge about immigration, reduced concerns about the labor market effects of immigration and lower support for Spain’s right-wing party.
Refugee reception, extreme-right voting, and compositional amenities: evidence from Italian municipalities (with M. Gamalerio, M. Luca, & M. Viskanic), Regional Science and Urban Economics, 2023
Media coverage: lavoce.info (Italian) nadaesgratis.es (Spanish) ElPeriodico (Spanish)
We use data from Italy to study the political and social impact of a refugee reception policy (SPRAR) directly managed by local governments, whose features recall the conditions of the contact theory (Allport, 1954). Instrumental variables estimates indicate that municipalities that opened a refugee center between the 2013 and 2018 national elections experienced a change in the vote shares of extreme-right parties approximately 7 percentage points lower compared to towns that did not open a refugee center. We document that the positive impact of SPRARs on “compositional amenities” (i.e., local schools) and population growth allows explaining the negative impact on anti-immigrants’ prejudice. Finally, we provide evidence of spillovers in prejudice reduction in neighboring municipalities without a SPRAR.
Dynasties and Policymaking (with G. Daniele and P. Vertier), Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2021, vol. 190, pp. 98-110
In this paper, we test whether dynastic leaders differ in their policymaking once in office. Based on a large sample of Italian dynastic mayors, we do not find differences in policy-making in terms of average revenue and expenditure. However, dynastic mayors increase spending and obtain higher transfers during the pre-electoral year, especially when electoral incentives are stronger. We suggest that they might behave more strategically both because they can (thanks to inherited political skills) and because they want to (due to higher returns from politics). Nevertheless, this strategic behavior is not reflected by different performance while in office. Overall, we suggest that dynastic-elected leaders differ concerning policies explicitly linked to their political careers.
Winner of the Best Paper Award, Barcelona PhD Workshop 2019 | Winner of the III Nada es Gratis Job Market Paper Award, 2020
Media coverage: thecrimereport.org www.praeventionstag.de
I investigate whether the election of far-right politicians affects the probability of hate crimes against immigrants. I exploit a unique dataset on hate crimes, and I focus on local mayors in Italy, a country where political support for the far-right has soared recently. Using a regression discontinuity (RD) analysis, I show that in municipalities where far-right mayors are in power, the likelihood of hate crimes is significantly higher (around five percentage points). In addition, I find the same positive and significant effect when focusing on the most salient and severe hate crimes, namely, those that involve physical violence or damages to immigrants’ properties.
Far-right Electoral Victories Exacerbate Public Service Discrimination Against Minorities ( with K. Krakowski, D. Rosenberg, & M. Schaeffer), R&R American Political Science Review
This study investigates whether far-right party victories influence public administrators, expected to be impartial, to discriminate against minorities accessing a general medical practitioner (GMP). Using a Differences-in-Regression-Discontinuities (Diff-in-RD) approach, we conducted a field experiment in Italy. Individuals with native-Italian and West-African accents contacted municipalities near the electoral threshold for far-right mayors, requesting a GMP. Compared to native-Italian callers, individuals with West-African accents faced significantly closer scrutiny and higher denial rates. The disparity in denials and unjustified scrutiny was amplified at the electoral threshold for far-right victories, suggesting increased public service discrimination under such leadership. These findings highlight the potential consequences of far-right electoral success for social equity and access to essential services.
We analyze the effect of increased women representation in politics on gender attitudes within the adult UK population, combining 2002-2019 local election results in England with survey responses from Understanding Society and the British Household Panel Survey. Our Regression Discontinuity analysis shows that the election of a female councillor generates a shift towards more conservative gender attitudes in the population. This backlash effect is entirely driven by male respondents and by those more affected by economic insecurity, i.e. unemployed individuals and those more exposed to the import competition with China. Additionally, we find suggestive evidence that the backlash mainly affects attitudes related to the private sphere, rather than views about society at large. The effect on female respondents is very limited, but our results show that the election of a woman raises their support for work-family policies. Importantly, given the context of our analysis, our results are unlikely to be driven by gender differences in policymaking.
Riders in the Smog: the Impact of Air Pollution on the Health, Safety, and Productivity of Food Delivery Workers (with G. D’Adda, S. Ferro, & T. Frattini), Draft Available Soon!
This paper investigates the causal impact of air pollution on the health, safety, and productivity of food delivery riders. Using high-frequency company records combined with granular air pollution and weather indicators, we examine how fluctuations in PM2.5 levels affect riders' absenteeism, delivery speed, and accidents. To address endogeneity, we employ an instrumental variable approach, using the Inverse Planetary Boundary Layer Height (IBLH) as an exogenous source of pollution variation. We find that higher pollution increases absenteeism for all workers and slows delivery and raises accident rates for (e-)bike riders. Monetary incentives reduce the effects on absences but fail to offset the productivity losses and exacerbate accident risks.
A More Conservative Country? Asylum Seekers and Voting in the UK (with F. Fasani, S. Ferro, & E. Pasini), Draft Available Soon!
Winner of the Best Poster Award, Workshop on the Impact of Immigration and Refugee Inflows on Host Country Economies 2025
This study examines the impact of dispersed asylum seekers on electoral outcomes in England from 2004 to 2019. We identify the causal effect of asylum seekers on electoral outcomes by combining variation from a dispersal policy with an IV strategy which predicts the allocation based on pre-determined public housing characteristics. Our IV results indicate a significant shift in the Conservative-Labour vote share difference, with a one within-area standard deviation increase in dispersed asylum seekers leading to a 3.1 percentage point rise in favor of the Conservatives at the local elections. We find similar effects in national elections and the Brexit referendum, with increased support for the Leave vote. Evidence from longitudinal survey data confirms that exposure to asylum seekers shifted votes away from the Labour Party and towards the Conservative one. Our heterogeneity analysis reveals that this effect is primarily driven by asylum seekers from Muslim-majority countries and unaccompanied arrivals. Moreover, we find no significant impact on voting behavior from asylum seekers who are free to choose their place of residence. In exploring potential mechanisms, we demonstrate that while local exposure to asylum seekers only slightly alters public attitudes, it significantly increases the prominence of immigration in MPs' speeches in the UK Parliament.
Populism and Geographical Sorting ( with M. Anelli, I. Colantone, M. Morelli, and P. Stanig)
Far-Right Mayors and Online Hate (with S. Ferro)
Hate speech and hate crime in the EU and the evaluation of online content regulation approaches (European Parliament, 2020)
Impact Evaluation of Education Quality Improvement Programme in Tanzania: Endline Quantitative Technical Report (Oxford Policy Management, 2019)