Welcome to my page!

After recently graduating from the University of Warwick with a PhD in Economics, I am now a postdoctoral researcher at Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFELink opens in a new window. In the spring of 2024, I will join the Department of Economics, University of BathLink opens in a new window, as a Lecturer (Assistant Professor).

I am an applied microeconomist interested in empirical political economy. My research focuses on misinformation and voters' behaviour with a focus on the role of media and its relationship with science and science communication.

Publications

1. Who Voted for Brexit? Individual and Regional Data Combined.Link opens in a new window
   (with Sascha O. BeckerLink opens in a new window, Thiemo FetzerLink opens in a new window, and Dennis NovyLink opens in a new window), 2019, European Journal of Political Economy, 56, pp.132-150.
   Among EJPE most popular articles.Link opens in a new window Selected media coverage: The Washington PostLink opens in a new window, The Irish TimesLink opens in a new window, QuartzLink opens in a new window, LSE blogLink opens in a new window.

Working Papers

1. Bad Science: Retractions and Media Coverage.Link opens in a new window CESifo Working Paper No. 10195Link opens in a new window [Job market paper]
   Flawed research can be harmful both within and outside of academia. Even when published research has been retracted and refuted by the scientific community, it may continue to be a source of misinformation. The media can play an important role in drawing broader attention to research, but may equally ensure that research, once retracted, ceases to feature in popular discourse. Yet, there is little evidence on whether media reporting influences the retraction process and authors' careers. Using a conditional difference-in-differences strategy, this paper shows that articles that gained popularity in the media at publication and were subsequently retracted face heavy citation losses, while remaining citations become more accurate. Further, authors of such papers see a permanent decline in research output. Lastly, the paper provides evidence that media can influence both the likelihood of retraction and its timing, highlighting that the media can play an important role in contributing to the integrity of the research process.
   Media briefing: RES2022 Annual ConferenceLink opens in a new window
   
   
2. National Polls, Local Preferences and Voters' Behaviour: Evidence from the UK General Elections.Link opens in a new window Warwick Economics paper No. 1426 [Submitted]
   A central challenge for social scientists consists in explaining why people vote and what are the consequences of their behaviour. Exploiting variation in national opinion polls across UK general elections, and in the degree of safeness of British constituencies over time, I provide evidence of a significant impact of pre-election polls on electoral outcomes and shed light on a novel mechanism. I find that opinion polls affect voters' behaviour via their interaction with the recent electoral history of a constituency: first, turnout decreases when the polls predict non-competitive elections, and this effect is stronger in safe seats. Second, the composition of local vote shares and parties' performance is also impacted by anticipated election closeness and the effects vary heterogeneously depending on whether poll predictions are aligned with the past electoral outcomes of a constituency. Finally, the causal impact on voters' participation is confirmed with consistent individual-level evidence.
   Media Coverage: Warwick Economics NewsLink opens in a new window, The Irish TimesLink opens in a new window
   
   
3. Electoral Accountability and Local Support for National Policies.Link opens in a new window Warwick Economics paper No. 1448 (with Federica LiberiniLink opens in a new window, Francesco PorcelliLink opens in a new window, Michela RedoanoLink opens in a new window, Antonio RussoLink opens in a new window).
   We study the provision of information by local governments that supports individual compliance with nationwide regulation, and how this provision relates to the electoral process. We use information about individual mobility (compliance with the lockdown) and Facebook posts by Italian local governments during the Covid 19 pandemic. We show that in municipalities where mayors were up for reelection, local governments provided significantly more covid-related information. This information caused a significant decrease in mobility and excess mortality. However, these effects seem to arise only in the northern regions of the country, where the impact of the pandemic was more severe.
   
   
4. Who is NOT voting for Brexit anymore?Link opens in a new window (with Thiemo FetzerLink opens in a new window), CAGE working paper No. 394
   Using estimates of support for Leave across UK local authority areas constructed from a comprehensive 20,000 strong survey, we show that both the level and the geographic variation capturing differential degrees of support for Leave have changed significantly since the 2016 EU referendum. A lot of area characteristics, many of which were previously associated with higher levels of support for Leave, are now significant correlates capturing a swing towards Remain. They include, for example, the degree to which local authorities receive transfers from the EU or the extent to which their economies rely on trade with the EU, along with past electoral support for UKIP (and the BNP) and exposure to immigration from Eastern Europe. Lastly, exposure to austerity since 2010 is among the strongest individual correlates weakening the support for Leave. The evidence is consistent with the argument that the small margin of victory of Leave in 2016 was, to a significant extent, carried by protest voters, who used the EU referendum to voice their discontent with domestic social and economic developments, particularly, austerity. Lastly, we present some evidence suggesting that the UK public, even in Leave supporting areas, would be much more willing to make compromises on free movement and aspects of single market membership compared to what appears to be the UK government's negotiation objective.
   Selected media coverage: The New York TimesLink opens in a new window, The IndependentLink opens in a new window, Business InsiderLink opens in a new window, GraziaLink opens in a new window.

Work in Progress

• Poisoned Trust: The Effect of the Glyphosate Scandal on Political Polarization.
  (with Carlo SchwarzLink opens in a new window).
• Does Trust in Science affect Demand for Narratives?
  (with Francesco CapozzaLink opens in a new window).
• Collaborator of Trust in Science and Science-Related Populism.Link opens in a new window

Policy Publications

1. The Blurring of Corporate Investor Nationality and Complex Ownership StructuresLink opens in a new window
   (with Bruno CasellaLink opens in a new window), 2020, Transnational Corporations Journal, 27(1):115-138.
2. World Investment Report 2016. Investor Nationality: Policy Challenges.Link opens in a new window New York and Geneva: United Nations.