Marco Martinez

Welcome! 

I am an Assistant Professor (Ricercatore Tenure-Track) in economic history at the University of Pisa and affiliated at the Institute of Economics of Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa, where I obtained my Ph.D. in Economics. 

My research focuses on the economic history of innovation, industrial policies and gendered economic development. I am particularly interested in Italian and European economic history, with a focus on technological change, infrastructure, human capital, regional inequalities and gender. My current research examines the historical evolution of innovation and technology transfer, as well as the development and implementation of industrial policies in 19th and 20th-century Europe, including post-war reconstruction programmes.

A distinctive feature of my work is the creation of new large-scale historical datasets based on sources such as patents, genealogical records, infrastructure records and biographical information. I combine quantitative and qualitative approaches to investigate the long-term processes of economic change and institutional development.

My work has been published in journals such as the Economic History Review, Explorations in Economic History, Review of Income and Wealth, Business History, Cliometrica and Social Science History. Prior to joining the University of Pisa, I held research positions at Sant'Anna on PRIN projects concerning British industrialisation and Italian economic growth. I was also a visiting researcher at the University of Oxford during my PhD. My Ph.D. thesis, supervised by Alessandro Nuvolari, investigated some of the causes and consequences of Italian regional divides. To this end, I used new genealogical data to measure the human capital and social mobility in the run-up to the Unification of 1861. I also used new patent data to examine  the effect of access to the railroad infrastructure on Italian innovation. Finally, I used biographical data to examine the relationship between exposure to international ideas and domestic patent quality. Alongside my work in modern economic history, I have an active research interest in the social and economic history of ancient Mediterranean societies, particularly the relationship between institutions and inequality.

Main Research interests

Technology transfer, innovation, and industrial policy; education and human capital; gender and inequality