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Research

Articles in International Academic Journals/Scholarly Articles

Articles in Italian Journals

  • “L’economia dei conflitti nei paesi in via di sviluppo”, Rivista Italiana degli Economisti, 12(3), 39-53, 2007.
  • “Public Capital and Economic Performance: Evidence from Italy,” with F. Bonaglia and M. Marcellino, Giornale degli Economisti e Annali di Economia, 60(2), 221-44, 2000.

Working Papers

  • Female Genital Cutting and the Slave Trade, with L. Corno and A. Voena, IFS Working Paper 25/22; 2025. 
  • “The Nerds, the Cool and the Central. Peer Education and Teen Pregnancy in Brazil” (with E. Baumgartner, E. Breza, V. Orozco and P. Rosa-Dias), mimeo, Harvard University, 2024.
  • “Changing Harmful Norms through Information and Coordination: Experimental Evidence from Somalia,” (with P. Ferreira, S. Gulesci, D. Smerdon and M. Sulaiman), mimeo, Harvard University, 2023.
  • “Norm Replacement: A Field Experiment on ending Female Genital Cutting” (with L. Corno), mimeo, Harvard University, 2023.
  • “Digging Deeper: Mining Companies and Armed Bands in the DRC” (with D. Zufacchi), mimeo, UCL, 2023.
  • “Informing Risky Migration: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial in Guinea” (with G. Battiston and L. Corno), mimeo, Harvard University, 2023.
  • “Valuing Hope: A Model of Aspirations” (with V. Novak), mimeo, Bocconi University, 2021.
  • The Entertaining Way to Behavioral Change: Fighting HIV with MTV, with A. Banerjee and V. Orozco, NBER Working Paper 26096, 2019.
  • “News vs. Novelas: Can Entertainment Media Undermine Dictatorships?”, with A. Chong, C. Ferraz, F. Finan and L. Meloni, mimeo, Bocconi University, 2016.

Research Papers/Reports

Reviews and Chapters in Books

  • “Changing Culture and Norms in Developing Countries” (with D. Yanagizawa-Drott), in B. Enke, P. Giuliano, N. Nunn, and L. Wantchekon (eds), The Handbook of Culture and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, forthcoming.
  • “Alberto Alesina (1957–2020)”,(with C. Favero, G. Francesco, P. Giuliano, and G. Tabellini) in R. A. Cord (ed.), The Palgrave Companion to Harvard Economics, Palgrave Macmillan, 2024.
  • “The Media as a Tool for Institutional Change in Development”, in J.-M. Baland, F. Bourguignon, J.-P. Platteau and T. Verdier (eds), The Handbook of Economic Development and Institutions, Princeton University Press, January 2020.
  • “Social and Economic Impacts of the Media” (with S. DellaVigna), in S. Anderson, D. Stromberg and J. Walfogel (eds.), Handbook of Media Economics, Elsevier, 2015.
  • “Financial markets and conflict in the developing world”, in T. Besley and R. Jayaraman (eds.), Institutional Microeconomics of Development, MIT Press, 2010, ch. 3.
  • “Family and kinship ties in development: An economist’s perspective”, in J.-P. Platteau (ed.), Culture, Institutions and Development, Routledge, 2010, ch. 5.
  • “TFP, Costs, and Infrastructure: An Equivocal Relationship” (with M. Marcellino), in M. Artis, A. Banerjee and M. Marcellino (eds.), The Central and Eastern European Countries and the European Union, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
  • “Solidarity in Heterogeneous Communities”, in Ph. Van Parijs (ed.), Cultural Diversity versus Economic Solidarity, Bruxelles: De Boeck, 2004.
  • Book Review of “Income Distribution and High Quality Growth’’ (edited by V. Tanzi and K. Chu), The Economic Journal, 110(461), F234-6, 2000.
  • “Exchange Allocation Mechanism Reform’’ (with G. Castillo and J. Nash), in J. Nash and F. Foroutan (eds.), Trade Policy and Exchange Rate Reform in Sub-Saharan Africa, ch.4, National Centre for Development Studies, The Australian National University, 1997.
  • “Public Debt”, in R.E. Hall e J.B. Taylor, Macroeconomics, Milan: Hoepli, ch.14, 1995.

Ongoing Projects

  • Binging the Gap: Promoting Cohesion through an Edutainment Web Series on Venezuelan Migrants (with A. Kim)
  • Social and economic integration of Syrian refugees in host communities in Jordan (with M. Holmlund and P. Rosa-Dias)
  • Property Rights and Women’s Empowerment in Côte d’Ivoire (with A. Donald, M. Goldstein, A. Hartmann, M. O’Sullivan and A. Voena).
  • Impact of the Land Tenure Regularization program in Rwanda (with D. Ali, K. Deininger and M. Goldstein).
  • Turkish Soap Operas and Women’s Empowerment in Egypt (with S. Gulesci and D. Ubfal).