Research

Working Papers

Self-Selection, University Courses and Returns to Advanced Degrees, 2024, submitted.


Higher education often requires choosing a bachelor's and a master's degree, yet we know little about the returns of these combined choices and the role of courses in different disciplines. This paper addresses this gap using detailed data on Italian graduates and university programs. I study the labor market returns to combinations of bachelor's and master's degrees and investigate how the characteristics of the curriculum affect outcomes. I exploit exogenous variation in access to bachelor's and master's degrees to causally estimate the returns to 43 combinations of degrees. I organize the data in a nested model and investigate the preference profile of the sample through policy simulations that shift admission requirements. I then relate the estimated returns to the academic curriculum of degrees to examine the role of quantitative education. I contribute to the literature on returns to advanced degrees by incorporating master's degrees in the discussion on how higher education affects outcomes and providing evidence on the characteristics of curricula that are positively related to labor market returns. I find that returns to degree combinations vary substantially even for combinations of degrees with the same bachelor's, suggesting that both types of programs require consideration. Combinations of degrees in different disciplines relate positively to economic outcomes, while combinations in the same field perform worse. Successful combinations have little non-quantitative education in the master's, and quantitative courses alone do not explain higher returns.
JEL codes:  C35, C36, I21, I23, I26, I28, J24

Quality and selection in regulated professions, 2024, submitted.

Joint with Gaetano Basso, Michele Pellizzari, Giovanni Pica

Most recent version here. 

Media coverage: lavoce.info


Entry in many occupations is regulated to screen out the least able producers but the available evidence suggests that this objective is rarely achieved. Using microdata covering the universe of Italian law school graduates (2007-2013), we show that this result is due to the strong intergenerational transmission of regulated professions. We find that having relatives already active in the profession substantially increases the probability of passing the entry exam (and earnings), especially so for those who performed poorly in law school, without raising occupation-specific human capital. Counterfactual simulations show that positive selection emerges if family connections are assumed away.
JEL codes: J24, J44, J62

Work in progress

Credit and Voting

Joint with Giacomo De Giorgi and Jérémy Laurent-Lucchetti

We investigate how credit constraints for subprime borrowers affect political polarization in the U.S. Using proprietary data on credit reports for 1% of the U.S. population over 15 years, we detect exogenous discontinuities in access to credit. We combine this data with Congressional elections and find that more credit-constrained individuals increase the Republican vote share. We rationalize this finding through political alignment among republicans for laxer regulation of credit and mortgage markets. Our results are robust to trade exposure.Preliminary draft available upon request

Political Polarization, Gender and Demand for Ideology

This paper investigates the rise of political polarization among women candidates, especially republican women, in the U.S. Congress from 1992 to 2018. Even though democrat women have always been more liberal than their male colleagues, republican women have shifted by about two standard deviations in their ideological position over the last thirty years, more than any other group. Furthermore, this is the only shift that is not matched by an ideological shift of the candidates' supporters. This suggests that even though polarization has been generally met with a similar change in the demand for ideology, this has not been the case for republican women. Furthermore, circumstantial evidence suggests that women, especially republicans, face off in more competitive elections.
Preliminary draft available upon request

Non Peer-Reviewed Contributions

La Conoscenza Finanziaria di Base: un nuovo strumento di progresso individuale e sociale, 2017

Joint with Flavia Coda Moscarola and Elsa Fornero, book chapter in in “Indagine sul Risparmio e sulle scelte finanziarie degli italiani 2017", edited by Giuseppe Russo

Loneliness, financial illiteracy and distrust in the old age: A survey on the older people assisted by Ufficio Pio, 2017

Joint with Flavia Coda Moscarola