Publications:
The 'Great Lockdown': Inactive Workers and Mortality by COVID-19 (with Nicola Borri, Francesco Drago and Francesco Sobbrio), Health Economics, Vol. 30(10): 2367-2382. 2021 [SSRN, medRxiv, VoxEu]
In response to the Covid-19 outbreak the Italian Government imposed an economic lockdown on March 22, 2020 and ordered the closing of all non-essential economic activities. This paper estimates the causal effects of this measure on mortality by Covid-19 and on mobility patterns. The identification of the causal effects exploits the variation in the active population across municipalities induced by the economic lockdown. The difference-in-differences empirical design compares outcomes in municipalities above and below the median variation in the share of active population before and after the lockdown within a province, also controlling for municipality-specific dynamics, daily-shocks at the provincial level and municipal unobserved characteristics. Our results show that the intensity of the economic lockdown is associated with a statistically significant reduction in mortality by Covid-19 and, in particular, for age groups between 40-64 and older (with larger and more significant effects for individuals above 50). Back of the envelope calculations indicate that 4,793 deaths were avoided, in the 26 days between April 5 to April 30, in the 3,518 municipalities which experienced a more intense lockdown. Several robustness checks corroborate our empirical findings.
Working Papers & Ongoing Projects
When Women Win: Can Female Representation Decrease Gender-Based Violence?, with Veronica Frisancho and Evi Pappa [CEPR Discussion Paper, IDB Working Paper] (submitted)
Every day, three women are murdered in the United States by a current or former partner. Yet policy action to prevent such violence has been limited. Previous studies have highlighted the effect of female political representation on gender-based crimes in developing countries. Using FBI data and a regression discontinuity design on mixed-gender races, we find that the election of a female House Representative leads to a short-lived decline in the prevalence of femicides in her electoral district. The drop in femicides is mainly driven by a deterrence effect that results from higher police responsiveness and effort in solving gender-related crimes.
Colluding With Your Peers: Neighbours and Selective Absenteeism in the Parliament [new draft coming soon!]
This paper evaluates the effect of peers on Parliamentary absenteeism. Using data from the Italian House of Representatives, I exploit the alphabetical assignment of seats adopted by the largest party in the House to evaluate how spatial proximity (i.e. being neighbours) affects joint-attendance patterns. I find that, while having no effect on average, being neighbours has significant heterogeneous effects depending on the gender-composition of couples. In particular, couples in which both members are males are more likely to alternate their presence, rather than being jointly-absent or jointly-present, when seated together. I argue that this is evidence of MPs becoming more likely to cooperate by substituting one’s vote with another’s, i.e. more likely to collude.
Aspirations and Representation: The Effect of Female Leaders on Young Girls’ Human Capital Investments, with Veronica Frisancho and Evi Pappa
The Good, the Bad and the Party: Disentangling the Effects of Political Scandals, with Francesco Drago and Francesco Sobbrio
Overstretched: Financial Distress and Intimate Partner Violence, with Olivia Masi
Guns and Violence: The Role of Access, with Olivia Masi and Andrea Tizzani