I have a strong interest for applied microeconomics and microeconometrics. 

In my PhD research I focused on human capital and education, networks and peer effects, behavioral economics, subjective expectations, and survey design.

Job Market Paper: "Studying without distractions? The effect of a digital blackout on academic performance" (Work in Progress, 2021)  [draft available here] [appendix]

Co-funded by BUILT (Bocconi University Innovations in Learning and Teaching)

Abstract

Rising awareness about the effects of technological distractions on concentration raises many questions related to tasks that require deep levels of focus. I concentrate on an educational setting and I evaluate the impact of reducing disruptions on students' performance and related outcomes. To investigate this issue, I assign first-year university students to the use of an app that helps them disconnect from distractions on their smartphones.  The app blocks notifications and access to any other app during a pre-set time window; the treatment lasts for four weeks up to the midterm exams. Through the combination of administrative data with survey responses collected before and after the intervention, I first document potential selection mechanisms into the treatment; I find that students who are willing to participate are those who indeed report being aware of their problematic smartphone usage. I balance treated and control students using propensity score matching, and I find that the intervention has a positive effect on the midterm performance of specific courses, namely the most qualitative ones like Management and Law but not Math or Computer Science. Using survey measures I do not find a significant effect of the intervention on expected percent chance of passing the exams, expected grades, course evaluations, anxiety levels, and self-reported study time.

Conferences

15th RGS Doctoral Conference in Economics, February 21-22, 2022

2022 LESE (Lisbon Economics and Statistics of Education) Conference, January 20-21, 2022

11th Developments in Economics Education Conference, September 2-3, 2021

2nd LISER-IAB Conference on Digital Transformation and the Future of Work , September 20-21, 2021

"Whose Choice? Child-Parent Interactions and Choice Set Heterogeneity in Schooling Decisions", with Pamela Giustinelli (Work in progress, 2021) [EEA-ESEM slides available here]

Abstract

We characterize and empirically study the main sets of choice alternatives processed by families with an adolescent child prior to a consequential human capital decision: the choice of a high school track in presence of curricular specialization. Using rich survey data collected from a sample of Italian 8th graders and their parents during the months preceding high school track choice, we document substantial heterogeneity in size and composition of awareness, agency, and consideration sets at the time of pre-enrolment and trace the evolution of the sets' size and composition over the decision process. We find substantial evidence of limited agency and limited consideration at the time of choice, but no limited awareness. During the decision-making process agents tend to expand their choice sets over time, with students' sets smaller than their parents' ones.  We also detail how student and family characteristics affect the size of these sets and their composition in terms of number of tracks covered.

Conferences

2021 EEA-ESEM Summer Meeting [presenter: Pamela Giustinelli], August 23-27, 2021

“The role of expectations on peers in educational choices” (Working Paper, 2020). [available here]

Abstract

The influence of friends is an important driver in our life.  Students make choices not only by directly looking at peers' behaviors, but also on the basis of what they think their peers will do. In this paper I use multiple waves of a survey that elicits beliefs about high school characteristics  and gathers information concerning the network of friends. I look at the relevant factors for the choice of high school; by estimating a multinomial logit model I document that peer effects coming from beliefs about friends' future choices matter more than important academic-related aspects, such as the probability of liking the subjects taught at a certain school and the expected effort.

Conferences

XXIII Meeting on Applied Economics, June 3-4, 2021

XXIX Meeting of the Economics of Education Association , July 8-9, 2021

"Adolescents’ Opinions on COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy: Hints toward Enhancing Pandemic Preparedness in the Future", by Alessio Muscillo, Gabriele Lombardi, Elena Sestini, Francesca Garbin, Vittoradolfo Tambone, Laura Leondina Campanozzi and Paolo Pin. Vaccines 2023, 11(5), 967; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11050967

Abstract

To understand and assess vaccine reluctance, it is necessary to evaluate people’s perceptions and grasp potential reasons for generic apprehension. In our analysis, we focus on adolescents’ impressions towards anti-vaxxer behavior. The aim of the study is to figure out students’ opinions about vaccine reluctance, connecting possible explanations that motivate anti-vaxxer decisions with common specific personality traits. We further investigate people’s forecasts concerning the evolution of the pandemic. Between 2021 and 2022, we conducted a randomized survey experiment on a sample of high school individuals (N=395) living in different Italian regions. At that time, the vaccination campaign had already been promoted for nearly one year. From the analysis, it emerges that vaccinated people (92%), especially males, tend to be more pessimistic and attribute a higher level of generic distrust in science to anti-vaxxers. The results show that family background (mother’s education) represents the most influential regressor: individuals coming from less educated families are less prone to attribute generic distrust and distrust of vaccines as principal reasons for vaccine reluctance. Similarly, those who rarely use social media develop a minor tendency to believe in a generic pessimism of anti-vaxxers. However, concerning the future of the pandemic, they are less likely to be optimistic toward vaccines. Overall, our findings shed light on adolescents’ perceptions regarding the factors that influence vaccine hesitancy and highlight the need for targeted communication strategies to improve vaccination rates. 

Oct 2018 - Feb 2019, "Adansonia" project by prof. Fernando Vega Redondo and prof. Paolo Pin (see their paper here).

Tasks: analysis of peer effects in a network of African entrepreneurs.

Feb-Sept 2018,  "Early students' career choice in Italy" project by prof. Pamela Giustinelli and prof. Nicola Pavoni.

Tasks: data analysis and reporting.

Feb-May 2020, Associazione Centro Studi Impara Digitale, "Digitale sì, digitale no" project. Research setting to evaluate how the use of technologies in classroom settings affects mental well-being of students and teachers. See the dedicated website (in Italian)

Tasks: collaboration in writing the final report (available here, in Italian only).

2014, contribution  to the collection "Prima e Dopo il Leviatano" [Before and After the Leviathan, in Italian only] by Merio Scattola and Paolo Scotton. 

Essay "La statistica. Le origini, la matematica e l’Università di Padova" [Statistics: The origins, Math, and the University of Padova], with Clara Silvano. 

Editor: CLEUP, Padova. Available here.