Research Summary 

Publications: 

Interacting Cobweb Demands (with Giorgio Ricchiuti): 

Published in Computational Economics (Springer): 

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10614-024-10788-x#article-info

This paper proposes a simple stylized two-good dynamical cobweb model. Consumers and producers are located in two countries, where they can choose to consume either locally produced or imported goods. We introduce a heuristic rule for consumers, which considers a convex combination of purchasing the cheapest good and the expected intrinsic quality of the two goods. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the interconnection between markets is a primary driver of instability, manifesting through either a flip or a Hopf bifurcation. Additionally, the dynamics depend closely on the price-quality trade-off. We identify three scenarios: when only price matters, a stable period-2 cycle arises; when only quality matters, the system converges; and in intermediate cases, complex dynamics emerge. Notably, we discovered a boundary crisis region, where there is a sudden shift from a chaotic attractor to stability. Finally, as a brief extension, we analyze the system when tariffs are considered for policy purposes.

Work in progress: 

Misperception of Smartphone Use (with Andrea Blasco): 

📄 1st draft soon available. 

Misperception of Norms are widespread across social contexts. The implications of misperceiving own and others' behavior is typically associated with distorted responses by those who are affected by. In this paper, we employ an online survey to test the existence of misperceptions concerning smartphone use. We first assess the existence of them, and we examine the source of misperceptions distinguishing the own from the peers' usage. We found evidence of systemic reference group overestimation of usage, which is positively associated with own screen time, and active usage of social media platforms (SMP). Concerning the misperception of the own usage, the direction is unclear. Notwithstanding the latter fact, those who reported higher screen time are more likely to underestimate their own usage. We include, as a policy intervention, an information experiment which aims at providing truthful information about others’ smartphone use. We found that, a 2.4% underestimation of own use is associated with a willingness to reduce screentime smartphone consumption by 1%. Furthermore, showing the truthful value of smartphone peers' consumption to those who overestimated peers' consumption led us to estimate an ATE of 0.119 S.D. points among our subjects.  

Other works in progress: 

The Rise of Influence: On the determinants of Aspirations, and their inclusion in a Network Game.

The interplay between Inequality and Policy Support in an ABM model (With Marco Catola, Pietro Guarnieri, Laura Marcon, Angelo Piga).