Hello! Thank you for your interest in my research. I teach International Economics at the University of Macerata, Italy. My research focuses on the empirics of international trade. In particular, on the measurement of international sectoral and overall specialization using nonparametric statistics; on the similarity in trade structures and on its effect on growth; on the use of dynamic panel data techniques in gravity models; and on oligopoly models in international trade analysis. My ongoing research deals with the application of network analysis to international trade and on the formation of individual opinions among economists. Luca Salvatici and I have have edited a book with Springer on THE TRADE IMPACT OF EUROPEAN UNION PREFERENTIAL POLICIES: AN ANALYSIS THROUGH GRAVITY MODELS (the hyper-link is on the right). Watch out for the data and script files that allow to replicate the analysis in Stata. Have fun and give me feedbacks if you wish. I spend my leasure time mountain hiking and climbing. I am a member and a climbing instructor of the Italian Alpine Club. The picture to the right (by Gad Nacamulli) is taken on the Dolomites (Torre Valgranda at Civetta).
Working Papers
Can we really trust offshoring indices? (with Davide Castellani and Daniel Horgos) (2012)
This paper argues that indices of offshoring built on input-output tables are actually measuring something...
Schools of Thought and Economists' Opinions on Economic Policy (with Michele Di Maio) (2012)
In this paper we bring to data the hypothesis that economists’ opinions are related to...
On the Pro-trade Effects of Immigrants (with Massimiliano Bratti and Gianluca Santoni) (2011)
Using highly detailed data on trade flows from 107 Italian provinces (NUTS-3) between 2003 and...
Africa in the World Trade Network (2010)
This paper contributes to the analysis of the effect of the global financial crisis (Claessens...
Dummies for Gravity and Gravity for Policies: Mission Impossible? (with Claudio Vicarelli), Under revision (2010)
The use of the gravity model to evaluate the effect of policies in a cross-country...
Articles
The World Trade Network (with Lucia Tajoli), The World Economy (2011)
This paper uses the tools of network analysis and graph theory to graphically and analytically...
Economists' View About the Economy. Evidence from a Survey of Italian Economists (with Michele Di Maio), Rivista Italiana degli Economisti (2011)
This paper is about economists, their views and their level of consensus on economic policy....
Comparing Sectoral International Trade Networks (with Lucia Tajoli), Aussenwirtschaft (2010)
How is the structure of trade flows for a given good organized? Is it a...
Overall trade specialization and economic development: countries diversify (with Marco Gallegati and Tamberi Massimo), Review of World Economics (2009)
This paper provides evidence for an aspect of trade often disregarded in international trade research:...
Regional unemployment and productivity in Europe (with Roberto Basile), Papers in Regional Science (2008)
We analyse the relationship between regional unemployment and labour productivity in Europe, basing our empirical...
Books
The Trade Impact of European Union Preferential Policies: An Analysis Though Gravity Models (with Luca Salvatic) (2011)
Contributions to Books
The Gravity Model in International Trade (with Daria Taglioni), THE TRADE IMPACT OF EUROPEAN UNION PREFERENTIAL POLICIES: AN ANALYSIS THROUGH GRAVITY MODELS (2011)
This is a beautiful survey of the Gravity model in international trade. It is more...
Presentations
Slides - Africa in the World Trade Network, ETSG 2010 (2010)
Here you find the slides of the presentation of the paper Africa in the World...
Best figures I made with R (hopefully with R-scripts)
Bivariate projection (2012)
This is figure 1 of a paper with Michele Di Maio, Schools of Thought and...
Using Multiple Forest Plots to Present Multiple Regressions Results (2012)
This is figure 2 of a paper with Michele Di Maio, Schools of Thought and...
Using Forest Plots to Present Meta-Analysis Results (2011)
This is figure 1 of the paper with Massimiliano Bratti and Gianluca Santoni, On the...
African choropleth maps (2011)
The figure represents three choropleths of Africa (2007.1-2008.3; 2008.4-2009.1; 2009.2-2009.3) describing with different colors the...
Multiple Kernel Densities (2010)
This is a simple multiple kernel density plot, from a paper with Lucia Tajoli, Patterns...