Research
Completed Papers
Culture and Inclusive Political Institutions
Climate Shocks and State-Building (with: Giacomo Benati).
Climate Shocks, Democratization and (a Culture of) Cooperation (with: Giacomo Benati).
The Origins of the State's Institutional Capacity (with: Laura Righi).
The Origins of (a Culture of) Cooperation (with: Giacomo Benati).
Endogenous Legal Traditions
Understanding Legal Origins: on the Determinants and Impact of Legal Traditions. Vox, Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance.
Work in Progress
Culture and Inclusive Political Institutions
Against Historical Determinism: How to Combine Economics, Geoscience and History to Study State-Building (with: Giacomo Benati).
The 4200 BP Megadroughts Revised: Institutional and Economic Resilience in Greater Mesopotamia (with: Mark Altaweel, Giacomo Benati, Amin Gholami, Alessio Palmisano and David Stasavage).
Climate Change, State-Building and Resilience in Ancient Egypt (with: Amin Gholami).
Endogenous Elites and Non-elites Formation (with: Petros Sekeris).
Endogenous Property Rights
The Origins of Markets (with: Giacomo Benati).
Endogenous Legal Traditions
The Origins of Legal Origins (with: Giacomo Benati, Barbara Luppi, Francesca Pancotto and Francesco Parisi).
Published Papers
Culture and Inclusive Political Institutions
Extractive States: The Case of the Italian Unication (with: Guilherme de Oliveira). International Review of Law and Economics, 56 (2018): 142-159. EHS Blog. La Voce.
Endogenous (In)Formal Institutions (with: Serra Boranbay). Journal of Comparative Economics, 47 (2019): 921-945. Internet Appendix. Data in Brief. NEP-HIS Blog. EHS Blog.
Endogenous Institutions and Economic Outcomes. Economica, 87 (2020): 364-405. Internet Appendix. Data in Brief. NEP-HIS Blog. EHS Blog.
Climate Change and State Evolution (with: Giacomo Benati). PNAS, 118 (2021): e2020893118. EHS Blog.
The Economic and Institutional Determinants of Trade Expansion in Bronze Age Mesopotamia (with: Giacomo Benati and Federico Zaina). Journal of Archaeological Science, 131 (2021): 105398. Internet Appendix.
The Origins of the State: Technology, Cooperation and Institutions (with: Giacomo Benati). Journal of Institutional Economics, 18 (2022): 29-43. Internet Appendix.
The Origins of Political Institutions and Property Rights (with: Giacomo Benati and Federico Zaina). Internet Appendix. EHS Blog. Journal of Comparative Economics, 50 (2022): 946-968.
Combining Social Sciences, Geoscience and Archaeology to Understand Societal Collapse (with: Giacomo Benati). Quaternary Science Reviews, 314 (2023): 108217.
Endogenous Property Rights
Law and Culture: A Theory of Comparative Variation in Bona Fide Purchase Rules (with: Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci). Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, 35 (2015): 543-574. Internet Appendix. Data in Brief.
The Property-Contract Balance (with: Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci and Zhenxing Huang). Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 172 (2016): 40-64. Internet Appendix. Data in Brief.
Endogenous Property Rights. Journal of Law and Economics, 59 (2016): 313-358. Internet Appendix. Data in Brief. Harvard Law School Forum.
Divergence and Convergence at the Intersection of Property and Contract (with: Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci). Southern California Law Review, 92 (2019): 809-850. Data in Brief.
Property Rights, Transaction Costs, and the Limits of the Market. Oxford Business Law Blog. Economics of Governance, 24 (2023): 143-176.
Endogenous Property Rights and the Nature of the Firm* (with: Giuseppe Pignataro). Internet Appendix. *This article is based upon an idea by Carmine Guerriero and it is primarily his work. Giuseppe Pignataro helped develop some of the proofs. Economica (2024), 91: 383-413.
Endogenous Legal Traditions
Endogenous Legal Traditions. International Review of Law and Economics, 46 (2016): 49-69. Internet Appendix. Data in Brief. World Bank. Vox.
Endogenous Legal Traditions and Economic Outcomes. Journal of Comparative Economics, 44 (2016): 416-433. Internet Appendix. Data in Brief. World Bank. Vox. Harvard Law School Forum.
Endogenous Regulatory Institutions
Accountability in Government and Regulatory Policies: Theory and Evidence. Journal of Comparative Economics, 39 (2011): 453-469. Internet Appendix.
The Political Economy of Incentive Regulation: Theory and Evidence from US States. Journal of Comparative Economics, 41 (2013): 91-107. Internet Appendix. 2007 EARIE Paul Geroski Prize.
The Political Economy of (De)Regulation: Theory and Evidence from the US Electricity Industry. Journal of Institutional Economics, 16 (2020): 389-408. Internet Appendix. Vox. 2011 Hans-Jürgen-Ewers-Prize.
Chapters of Books
Legal Traditions and Economic Performances: Theory and Evidence. 2011. In: Encyclopedia of Law and Economics, 2nd ed., Volume VII, Bouckaert, Boudewijn and Gerrit De Geest (eds.). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
Law, Economics, and History: Endogenous Institutional Change and Legal Innovation (with: Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci). 2011. In: Does Law Matter? Law and Economic Growth, Faure, Michael and Jan Smits (eds.). Mortsel, BE: Intersentia Publishers.
Property Rights and Economic Development: Taking Stock, Looking Ahead. 2018. In: A Research Agenda for New Institutional Economics, Menard, Claude and Mary M. Shirley (eds.). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
Selected Interviews