Local Economy, Housing Prices and Neighborhood Change  (draft coming soon)  

Awarded XI Giorgio Rota best paper award

This paper investigates the impact of real estate prices on local economic activities within cities. I use a novel geo-located dataset of retailers and service providers, combined with information on sale and rental prices. I propose a unique empirical strategy that leverages the staggered implementation of a district heating system in Turin as an exogenous shock to housing prices. The analysis reveals that housing prices differently affect local economic sectors. While tradable sectors show resilience, non-tradable sectors experience a notable decline following the housing price shifts, exhibiting an elasticity of approximately -3%. This is probably due to demographic changes, particularly among college students, who are primary consumers in the non-tradable sector. The paper contributes to highlighting the complex interplay between housing market changes, demographic shifts, and urban economic activities. Moreover, it emphasizes the critical role of housing market dynamics in shaping urban planning and policy decisions.

Amenities, urban consumption and tourism with Miquel-Àngel Garcia-López  (draft coming soon) 

In this paper we investigate how tourism shapes local consumption amenities in cities. To do so, we combine a novel geo-located dataset of monthly retail establishments (licenses) with the number of tourist accommodations (Airbnb rooms) and develop an empirical strategy based on IV panel techniques to address endogeneity concerns. Average results show that tourism positively affects the number of establishment licenses. However, this effect is mainly related to tourist-oriented retail activities (e.g., bars and restaurants), while more resident-oriented establishments are negatively affected. This latter result highlights the segregating and re-shaping effect of tourism on retail activity of city centers. 

Entry Deregulation, Firm Turnover and Labour Market Outcomes: Evidence from Italian local markets  with Matteo Broso, Carlo Cambini and Lorien Sabatino  (draft coming soon) 

This paper investigates the impact of liberalisation policies on industry dynamics and labour market outcomes, by focusing on a landmark Italian law, the Bersani Law (BL). The BL was a key reform that removed entry barriers for new establishments. Using unique datasets on Italian firms turnover and worker histories, we exploit the timing of the BL to set up a difference-in-differences specification. Our results show that the BL significantly increased competition in the restaurant industry by increasing the number of restaurants. In particular, the law led to the exit of smaller, potentially less efficient firms and the entry of new ones. On the labour side, the BL induced an overall increase in employment, mainly through temporary contracts, but caused a decrease in average wages. These findings highlight the unforeseen effects of liberalisation policies: while boosting competition and employment, they may also bring challenges such as reduced job security and lower wages.