Eleonora Romano

Hello! I recently completed my PhD in Economics at the University of Bologna.

My research focuses on migration, labor markets and macroeconomics:
I use structural estimation and general equilibrium models to study how migration and policy interact with labor markets and welfare systems.

I was previously at the OECD (Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities), and I am currently a consultant at the World Bank.

I visited UC Davis in 2024 (Sept-Dec) and Yale University in 2025 (Jan-Jun).

📧 eleonora.romano9@unibo.it

📍 Department of Economics, University of Bologna – Piazza Scaravilli 2, Bologna, Italy

Working Papers

The Fiscal Impact of Migrants: Immigration Policy and Self-selection (draft)

This paper examines the fiscal impact of immigrants in Europe, integrating immigration policy and migrant self-selection within a unified analytical framework. Using EU-SILC data and a general equilibrium model that combines a multinomial logit migration choice structure with a CES production technology, the study analyzes how policy-induced changes in migration costs affect the skill composition of migrant inflows and, through labor-market adjustments, public finances in destination countries. Counterfactual simulations show that immigration policies primarily affect fiscal outcomes through a wage channel: policies that attract migrants of a given skill type increase labor supply in that segment, compress wages and reduce tax contributions from the targeted group. As a result, fiscal effects often arise from the non-targeted skill group rather than from the migrants the policy aims to attract. The analysis further documents substantial heterogeneity across countries, driven by differences in production structures that shape how changes in skill composition translate into wages, output, and fiscal balances. Finally, policy interventions generate cross-border spillovers through migrant reallocation, implying that unilateral or partially coordinated migration policies can shift fiscal gains and losses across countries rather than increase them overall.

Modeling and Evaluating the Labor Market and Fiscal Effects of Immigration - (draft)
with M. Battisti and G. Peri

Immigration affects natives through both labor markets and public budgets, yet these channels are usually studied separately. We combine them in a general-equilibrium model with search-and-matching frictions, skill-specific progressive labor taxes, capital taxation and public goods, calibrated to 17 OECD countries over 2015-2019. The welfare effect on natives of a one-percentage-point increase in immigrant inflows varies in sign and size across countries, hinging on immigrants' skill mix, immigrant-native wage gaps, resident unemployment, and tax progressivity. For inflows matching the skill composition of 2019-2024 arrivals, native welfare rises in 14 of 17 economies, and in most cases both skill groups gain, through different channels. Lower-skilled natives gain mainly from higher pre-tax earnings, driven by job creation and complementarity with skilled immigrants; higher-skilled natives gain mainly from lower labor-tax burdens. Evaluating immigration policy thus requires modeling labor-market and fiscal channels jointly: either channel alone gives an incomplete picture of who gains and why.

Household Dynamics and Labor Reallocation within Migrant Sending Households - (draft)
with G. Dangwal and J. Romero

Migration, and the household separation it entails, provides an important window into household decision making. Using high-frequency panel data from India, this paper examines how migration reshapes household behavior over time. Motivated by a collective household model with testable theoretical implications, the empirical strategy combines a difference-in-differences event study with a shift-share instrument exploiting variation in global commodity prices. We find that migration reduces wage and production income at origin. Remittances cushion but do not fully offset the shortfall, leaving per-capita resources broadly unchanged. Spousal labor supply increases during separation, displacing unpaid work, while other household members enter the labor force at the expense of schooling. These changes largely reverse after return, suggesting a temporary reallocation of time. Assets contract during separation; vehicles and durables rebound after return, but agricultural assets show little or no recovery, indicating short term shocks that induce lasting shifts in asset portfolios.

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