(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.
Judging the Paper by Its Cover: Affiliation Bias in Conference Admissions
(awarded the Paul David Best Junior Paper Award)
Connections predict career success across many occupations, including academia, where conference participation builds professional networks. This paper experimentally tests whether academic affiliation influences conference acceptance. Using a matched-pair field experiment during the review phase of an early-career economics workshop, we randomly assign papers with and without author affiliations to reviewers. We find a strong bias favoring prestigious institutions, reducing diversity by lowering the representation of women and first-generation graduates. This bias is primarily driven by in-group favoritism from reviewers at similarly ranked institutions. Our findings highlight how affiliation bias reinforces inequalities and limits academic diversity.
with Giacomo Gallegati, Águeda Solís Alonso and Enrique Carreras
Next job: Matera. How tourism and spotlight shape the local labour market with Ilaria Malisan - Reject and Resubmit at Regional Science and Urban Economics
(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.
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 and their relevance is growing over time. 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 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 allows mobile graduates to sort themselves into jobs where soft skills are more relevant. Being mobile during university studies helps graduates find jobs where communication (+10.6%), creativity (+16.3%), team working (+10.1%) and problem solving (+9.6%) skills are more important. Estimates suggest more pronounced effects for degrees in STEM, longer stays, universities with more international faculty and student bodies and for mobile students travelling to smaller and more culturally distant cities. I characterize the complier subgroup responding to my exposure instrument and show that my estimates refer to graduates coming from a negatively selected socio-economic background.
Mothers’ Work, Reconciliation Issues, and Fertility Desires
Evidence from the Evaluation of a Program to Support Mothers
with Daniela Del Boca and Chiara Pronzato
Critical Women and Confident Men? Skills Perception and Investment at University
with Liqing Chen, Adeline Delavande, Emilia Del Bono, and Angus Holford
Erasmus+ Mobility and Political Preferences
with Ruben Durante, Giovanni Mastrobuoni and Alessandra Moresi