"Reassessing International Trade Costs: The Role of Conventional and Unconventional Barriers", Acta Scientiarum Polonorum. Oeconomia, 2025 [DOI]
"How Interstate Soft Conflicts Affect Bilateral Migration: Results from a Structural Gravity Model", International Economics, 2024 [DOI]
"The Impact of Interstate Soft Conflicts on Bilateral Trade Flows Using Structural Gravity Model", The World Economy, 2024 [DOI]
"Foreign Trade of Georgian Agricultural Products and Existing Potential of Export to the European Union Market" (with J. Kraciuk), Acta Scientiarum Polonorum. Oeconomia, 2014 [DOI]
"Do External Threats Affect International Relations? Evidence from Small States Neighbouring Russia" (with A. Belmonte & D. Teobaldelli), 2025, Working Papers 502, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali [link]
"Does Emigration Shape Local Specialization? Evidence from Italy" (with A. Lo Turco & D. Maggioni)
This study examines the impact of emigration on local specialization. We focus on the significant rise in emigration rates among the working-age population from Italian provinces following the 2008–2009 economic crisis. Using panel data at the province and province-product level for 2006–2012, we show that emigration reduces exports of high human capital-intensive and high-quality products. These findings are robust to an instrumental variable strategy and reflect the high-skill profile of emigrants from Italian provinces. Our results suggest that high-skilled emigration can reshape local production structures, limiting the capacity to sustain skill-intensive production.
"Bilateral Trade and Voluntary Environmental Standards: Insights from ISO 14001 Certification" (with D. Lena)
As international markets have become increasingly interconnected, the significant reduction of traditional trade barriers in recent years has increased the likelihood of bilateral trade. However, the success of bilateral trade arrangements is often hindered by the specific and unique technical characteristics of a product related to safety, security, and environmental issues in different nations. Standardisation could act as a critical mechanism to overcome these non-tariff barriers. To this end, we analyse whether standardisation influences bilateral trade flows between nations. We use the environmental management system (ISO 14001 standard), the structural gravity model, and balanced panel dataset spanning from 1999 to 2019 in our analysis. As a first step, we investigate the impact of the ISO 14001 standard on bilateral trade flows in a sample of 38 OECD countries. To account for possible heterogeneity effects, we further extend our analysis on the sector level, including agriculture, manufacturing, mining, energy, and the services sector, to evaluate the ISO effect. In addition, our analysis also considers environmental goods and examines the impact of ISO 14001 on the bilateral trade of environmental goods. As a final step to account for the possibility of bias in our sample selection, we extend our analysis to a broader context, considering 129 countries. Our results generally show that the ISO 14001 certification generates a statistically significant and sustained positive impact on bilateral trade flows. Their impact is questionable regarding the benefits of environmental goods in the OECD sample, where the outcome is statistically insignificant.
"Do External Threats Affect Public Trust in International Organizations? Evidence from the South Caucasus" (with A. Belmonte & D. Teobaldelli) [Preprint]
This study examines the impact of geopolitical shocks on public trust in International Organizations (IOs), using the 2014 conflict in Ukraine as a quasi-experimental setting. Drawing on individual-level survey data from the Caucasus Barometer covering the period 2012-2017, we assess changes in trust in the European Union and the United Nations, as well as support for NATO membership, before and after the conflict among respondents in Georgia and Armenia. Although neither country was directly involved in the conflict, the crisis generated substantial geopolitical spillover throughout the South Caucasus. Employing a Difference-in-Differences design, we find a significant decline in trust in IOs in Georgia after 2014, a country characterized by a pro-Western foreign policy orientation and unresolved tensions with Russia. The decline was more pronounced than in Armenia, a country more closely aligned with Russia, which serves as a comparison group. We find that declines are concentrated among older, rural, and less pro-Western respondents. These findings highlight the polarizing effects of external geopolitical shocks and underscore the importance of identity and demographic characteristics in shaping institutional trust in small states bordering Russia.
"Movement of factors and health" (with A. Lo Turco)
Migrations and multinational company activities are two central phenomena of globalization that have created social challenges, such as balancing growing competitive pressure with developing safe and sustainable production processes. In this context, the project aims to study the relationship between the movement of factors and health. The project will advance the state of the art by carrying out the first study to our knowledge on the impact of multinational activities on worker safety and providing new evidence on the link between immigration and workers' health based on detailed data at the plant-company level through which it will also be possible to study the channels underlying the relationship.
"Interstate soft conflicts and bilateral FDI"
In this study, a structural gravity approach is used to examine the impact of interstate conflicts on bilateral FDI. Interstate soft conflicts that arise when diplomacy fails and a military operation seems too extreme may act as a policy tool and have a negative impact on bilateral relations. The empirical approach uses balanced panel data with annual observations and a theory-consistent structural gravity model of FDI, augmented by a new measure of interstate soft conflict.
"Technical Barriers to Trade in the European Union and Georgia's further Rapprochement with the EU", Proceedings of International Scientific-Practical Conference on National Economies and Globalisation, Tom2, 394-398, 2012 [link]
"Prospects of Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement between the European Union and Georgia", Proceedings of International Scientific-Practical Conference on the Globalization, Contemporary Problems of International Business and Development Trends, 471-474, 2012 [link]
"Georgia's External Trade Relations with the European Union", Proceedings of International Scientific-Practical Conference on Actual Economic Problems At Current Stage of Global Development, 419-422, 2010 [link]