Research
Job Market Paper
(awarded the 2023 Tortuga Call For Policy Paper, media coverage here)
Promoting talent is a key goal in education. In countries with competitive tertiary education, elite flagship institutions attract high-achieving students. Can honors program be an alternative way to nurture talent? This paper studies the causal impact of attending an honors program offered to high achieving students at a non-selective university in a context with non-competitive tertiary institutions. We exploit plausibly exogenous variation in the program's admission procedure, which leads to a strong discontinuity in the probability of admission and enrollment. We show the program works as both a recruitment device, increasing the probability of enrolling at the parent university (+8 pp), as well as a commitment device, reducing drop out rates (-7 pp) for admitted students. Moreover, enrollment into the program leads to a sizable improvement on academic achievement (+0.53 GPA points on a scale of 30) and shapes future labor market prospects towards post graduate studies (+18 pp). Prospects are confirmed by an increase (+37 pp) in the proportion of graduates enrolled in PhD programs one year after graduation. According to our findings, honors programs can be an effective tool to improve educational attainment and foster further human capital accumulation in talented students, mainly through an increase in transitions towards PhD programs.
Working papers
The Effect of being a European Capital of Culture: Evidence from Matera with Ilaria Malisan
(awarded the 11th Giorgio Rota Best Paper Award)
Tourism is an important, cross-cutting source of income and employment. As a potential tool for development, several governmental and intergovernmental initiatives have been put into place to foster tourism. We study the causal link between a mega cultural event, tourism and economic development exploiting the exogenous variation arising from the shortlisting, and subsequent nomination, to the 2019 European Capital of Culture. The title was awarded to Matera, a culturally-rich yet poorly connected and off-beat town in Southern Italy. By means of event study regressions and permutation tests, we compare changes in Matera to changes in other Italian cities unaffected by the policy. We find a boost in touristic presence, which then translates into a decrease in unemployment, an increase in income, firms and workers in industrial sectors even loosely connected with tourism and a remarkable hike in the real estate market. By analyzing the timing of these impacts, we find evidence of a spotlight effect: Matera starts benefiting from the event since the selection phase, even before being awarded the title, possibly due to increased media exposure. All in all, our findings suggest that the European Capital of Culture event could be a viable way for culturally endowed yet underrated destinations to showcase their attractions, in addition to a credible road to development.
Work in progress
Softening up while abroad. Soft skills and international student mobility
(awarded the Best Paper Award in memory of Riccardo Revelli - LABOR)
Soft skills are important determinants of labour market outcomes. Existing studies have underscored their significance, emphasized their malleability during young adulthood and their persistent undersupply in the labour market. Despite these findings, the production function of soft skills remains under explored. This paper investigates whether international student mobility, during university studies, can work as an effective technology to produce soft skills. I compile a new data source at the graduate-occupation-employer level using administrative data augmented with the importance of both hard and soft skills across occupations. My identification strategy instruments the decision to become mobile by exploiting exogenous variation in exposure to past mobility through a fine degree by cohort level. My results show that international student mobility works as an effective technology to shape soft skills by allowing mobile graduates to sort themselves into jobs where soft skills are relevant. Being mobile during university studies helps graduates find jobs where communication (+9.7%), creativity (+13.1%), team working (+9.1%) and problem solving (+9.4%) skills are more important. I characterize the complier subgroup responding to my exposure instrument and show this is made of graduates coming from a negatively selected socio-economic background.
Preliminary draft available here!
Equilibri: Career and family recoinciliation support
with Daniela Del Boca and Chiara Pronzato
Don’t judge the paper by its cover: Affiliation bias in conference admissions
with Enrique Carreras, Giacomo Gallegati and Águeda Solís Alonso