Welcome

I am an Associate Professor at the University of Insubria and a Visiting Fellow at the University of Essex. I am also affiliated with IZA, LABORatorio Riccardo Revelli and CRENoS. 

As an applied economist, I work with both large administrative datasets and survey data, focusing on Labour Economics, the Economics of Education, and Public Economics. More recently, I have been exploring the intersection of labour and regional economics, investigating how economic policies shape the functioning and development of local labour markets.  

I hold a PhD in Economics from University College London and an MSc in Economics from the University of Warwick.

Current Research (selected)

Coal Phaseout and Local Jobs - with Michel Serafinelli

We assess how coal phaseout affects employment. After the industry's rapid dissolution in Great Britain (GB) post-1980, the number of total jobs rebounded in many affected areas — defined as those with an initial high coal employment share — even surpassing pre-phaseout levels despite the loss of coal jobs. Notably, 48% of the affected areas saw employment growth in the four decades post-phaseout out- pacing the GB average. These findings indicate that a significant portion of affected areas successfully adapted to the coal phaseout's negative impact. We then explore why certain affected areas rebounded, while others did not. Our analysis reveals that the impact of coal phaseout on local employment varied based on how close areas were to tertiary education institutions (TEIs). In the decade prior to the coal phase-out, employment growth rates were comparable between areas near and far from TEIs. However, following the phaseout places closer to TEIs saw markedly faster employment growth. growth of skill-intensive industries explains this trend by offsetting employment declines in the coal industry. 

Learning by Working: Early-Career Contracts and Lifetime Outcomes - with Marco Francesconi, Noemi Mantovan and Robert Sauer

Recent Selected Publications

Does Weaker Employment Protection Lower the Cost of Job Loss? (2026) with Marco Francesconi, Journal of Human Resources 

In the media: VoxEU, lavoceinfo

Starting Out on the Right Foot Employment Effects of an On-the-job Training Program (2024) with Agata Maida, Journal of Human Resources

Sooner or later? The impact of child education on household consumption (2022) with Carmen Aina, Empirical Economics 

Public education provision, private schooling and income redistribution (2018) with Francesco Andreoli and Giorgia Casalone, Journal of Economic Inequality 

Selected Working Papers

External Audit in High School and Graduates' Labour Market Outcomes 

with Paolo Ghinetti and Giorgia Casalone, previous version in WorkINPS Papers 2022 n.56 

Revised & Resubmitted to Labour Economics 

In the media: lavoceinfo

Aid in Prospect: Grant Requirements in Non-Selective Higher Education 

with Marcello Matranga, Mariacristina Rossi, Francesco Figari and Gianluigi Vernasca previous version in IZA Discussion Paper No 18547 

Submitted