Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
"Rails of Progress? Exploring the Nexus Between Railroad Access and Innovation in 19th century Italy" with Alessandro Nuvolari and Michelangelo Vasta. Explorations in Economic History, 2025, Vol. 98, 101718. doi: 10.1016/j.eeh.2025.101718 (open access)
"Women Inventors in Italy, 1861-1939". Business History, 2025. doi: 10.1080/00076791.2025.2462178 (open access)
Best paper in the field of economic history at the 2024 IBEO (Individual Behavior and Economic Outcomes) workshop
Media coverage: UnipiNews; IlSole24Ore; La Gazzetta Marittima; La Nazione; Corriere della Sera; ANSA; Rai 1 Giornale Radio; Il Secolo XIX; TV2000; TGR Rai 3
"Technology Transfer and Domestic Innovation: New evidence from a dataset of Italian inventors, 1861-1914". Cliometrica, 2025, 19(2), pp. 375-419. doi: 10.1007/s11698-025-00305-x (open access)
"Assessing Ancient Inequalities: Hellenistic Delos" with Filippo Battistoni. The Review of Income and Wealth, 2025, Vol. 71 (2), e70001. (open access)
"It's not About the Money: New Evidence on U.S. Reconstruction Aid in Italy, 1947-1968". The Economic History Review, 2025, Vol. 78(1), pp. 266-294. (open access)
Winner, 2023 Marcello de Cecco prize in History and Economics of Institutions
"Decolonizing the Ancient Mediterranean: Lessons from V century BCE Athens and Carthage". Annals of the Fondazione Luigi Einaudi, 2024, Vol. LVIII. (open access)
Most updated version here
"Four Essays on Italian Economic History: Human Capital and Innovation, 1815-1914". Atti e Memorie dell'Accademia Toscana di Scienze e Lettere «La Colombaria», 2024, Vol. LXXXIX, pp. 209-216 [Ph.D. dissertation summary]
Finalist, best Ph.D. dissertation prize of the Società Italiana di Economia (Italian Society of Economics)
Winner, "La Colombaria" Academy prize for the best Ph.D. thesis in economic and social sciences (2024)
"A Reconstruction of the Italian Road Network, 1861-1910". Rivista di Storia Economica / Italian Review of Economic History, 2024, Vol. XL(3), pp. 247-276.
"The Origins of Italian Human Capital Divides: New evidence from Marriage Signatures, ca. 1815". Cliometrica, 2024, Vol. 18(12), pp. 567-617. (open access)
"Intergenerational Mobility in 19th-Century Italy: a case-study approach" with Giuliana Freschi. Rivista di Storia Economica / Italian Review of Economic History, 2024, Vol. XL(1), pp. 43-76.
"Why Experimental Balance is Still a Reason to Randomize" with David Teira. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 2024, Vol. 75(2), pp. 520-535. (open access)
Editor's choice
Honourable mention (Finalist), 2024 BJPS Sir Karl Popper Prize
"Rome and the Polis: Tradition and Change in the Financial Accounts of Tauromenion, I B.C." with Filippo Battistoni. Annals of the Fondazione Luigi Einaudi, 2022, Vol. LVI, pp. 149-176.
Book chapters
"Divari di genere e questione meridionale (1861-2025)", (with Giulia Mancini e Giuliana Freschi), in Emanuele Felice (ed.), La Via del Sud. Per Una storia Nuova, Bologna: Il Mulino, 2026.
"Learning from Early Mistakes: The World Bank's Design and Evaluation of Cassa per il Mezzogiorno Programs, 1950-1959", in Lucia Coppolaro, Francesco Petrini and Leonida Tedoldi (eds.), The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Southern Europe: Policy, Diplomacy, Economy and Institutional Transformation (1950s–1980s), London: Routledge, 2026.
Working Papers & Submitted Papers
"Tracing Inventors and Innovators in Italy: Evidence from a New Patent Data-set, 1855-1938" with Alessandro Nuvolari and Michelangelo Vasta. R&R, Social Science History
Updated version here
"Inventing under Persecution: Jewish inventors in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy" (with Sophia Rishyna). Submitted
"The Little Divergence and the Italian decline: a review essay" (with Emanuele Felice). Submitted
Work-in-progress
"Literacy and the British Industrial Revolution: new evidence from parish marriage certificates, 1750-1839" (with Alessandro Nuvolari and Michelangelo Vasta)
"Income inequality in the Greek and Roman world: evidence from land rents, IV BCE - III AD" (with Filippo Battistoni and Philipp Erfurth)
"The French Connection: technology transfer and invention between Fin-de-Siècle France and Italy" (with Youssouf Merouani and Faustine Perrin)
"Intergenerational Mobility of Inventors: new evidence from Italy" (with Sabrina Di Addario)
"Trademarking Innovation: Exploring the Role of Intellectual Property in Italy’s Fashion industry, 1861–1939" (with Valeria Pinchera)
"The North-South divides in Italian infrastructure, 1864-1910"
PhD Dissertation
"Four Essays on Italian Economic History: Human Capital and Innovation, 1815-1914." PhD Dissertation. May 2023.
Thesis as pdf
Data
I helped build The Historical Italian Patents (HIP), a yearly database of all Italian patents registered from 1855 to 1939.
This paper also describes the creation of the data set: Martinez, Marco, Nuvolari, Alessandro, and Vasta, Michelangelo (2025) "Tracing Inventors and Inventions in Italy (1861-1938): evidence from a new patent dataset (HIP),” submitted
Other work
"Four Essays on Italian Economic History: Human Capital and Innovation, 1815-1914." PhD Dissertation. May 2023.
"La Grande Isola" (novel)
"Ambiguità del progresso tecnico: Un'interpretazione delle soluzioni proposte da Tucidide e Platone attraverso il filo rosso del δεινός"