Works in progress:
1. "EU Money and Mayors: Does Cohesion Policy affect local electoral outcomes?" with Marco Di Cataldo
The EU Cohesion Policy, which delivers economic, territorial, and social cohesion in the recipient territories, is expected to affect political preferences of Europeans increasing public appreciation towards the EU. Until now, neglecting the territorial nature of the policy and the crucial role of local policymakers in its activation. Relying on a rich linear probability model, we find evidence of a systematic relationship between Cohesion Policy and local electoral outcomes. In detail, our results show that EU funds have a reciprocity and support-buying effect, and that the visibility and the magnitude of the EU Cohesion Policy play a crucial role in shaping local voting behaviours. Next, the paper tries to disentangle the main channels driving these results. We consider the different thematic objectives of EU projects, the actual improvements in citizens’ living conditions, and political accountability as possible mediators of the systematic relationship between EU funds and local electoral outcomes. These results have crucial implications. The political effect of place-based EU redistributive policies is eminently dependent on the design, the visibility, and the effectiveness of local development projects.
Presented at: 60th Ersa Congress (Aug. 2021), AISRE Web Conference (Sep. 2021), IV Seminar for New Academic Researchers (Oct. 2021), Ca’ Foscari Internal Seminars (Jen. 2022), GSSI Social Sciences Internal Seminars (Feb. 2022), Global Conference on Economic Geography (June 2022), LSE Shifting Landscape PhD Conference (June 2022), XXXIV Conference SIEP (Sep. 2022), RSA Winter Conference (Nov. 2022), Third Joint EU Cohesion Policy Conference (Nov. 2022), The Political Economy of Municipal Fiscal Policy Workshop (Nov. 2022)
2. "Childcare, Bread, and Roses. Do working women influence gender-sensitive policy?"
Persistent gender inequalities underscore the urgent need for increased investments in gender-sensitive policies. This study assesses the role of working women in shaping the political decision-making process concerning public early childcare provision in Italian municipalities. By leveraging granular historical administrative data and employing an Instrumental Variable approach, this work estimates this causal relationship while isolating the role of gender culture. On average, a 1-point increase in female employment leads to a 0.6% e change in childcare spots and to a 25% change in childcare expenditure per children 0-3. These findings remain significant across a large battery of robustness checks. Additionally, two placebo tests offer supportive evidence of working women acting as a pressure group advocating for the provision of gender-sensitive policies. The last part of this paper analyzes if this causal relationship might be mediated by the gender of local policymakers. Adopting a Regression Discontinuity Design on mixed-gender elections, this paper shows that female policymakers are no more responsive than their male counterparts to the demand of working women for early childcare.
Presented at: Inaugural Ca' Foscari Internal Seminars, Essex PhD Conference in Applied Economics, BoMoPAV, BoMoPaV (June 2023), 62nd ERSA Congress (Aug. 2023), XXXIV Conference SIEP (Sep. 2022), Meeting of Young Economists (Sep. 2023)
3. "EU funds in places with low-quality institution" with Marco Di Cataldo and Andrés Rodríguez-Pose
The quality of institutions is widely recognized as a fundamental factor for the success of the European Cohesion Policy. This study investigates whether the local quality of institutions influences the amount and allocation of EU Cohesion Policy funds between public and private beneficiaries, considering the policy's place-based structure that grants local institutions the power to influence the level of EU investments received. Relying on high quality of administrative data, we propose a novel measure of institutional quality at the municipal level in Italy, leveraging city council dismissals. To address the key identification challenges, we employ a staggered difference-in-differences (DID) strategy along with a matching procedure to ensure the absence of pre-trends between treated and control units. Our main finding reveals heterogeneous effects across different dimensions used to assess low institutional quality. Specifically, corruption within local governments leads to a reduction in EU investments allocated to the institutions themselves, whereas the low effectiveness of local bureaucracy increases EU funds directed towards public beneficiaries. These findings provide valuable insights into the varying impacts of different dimensions of institutional quality, offering important implications for policymakers and researchers studying the European Cohesion Policy.
Presented at: Cañada Blanch Lent Fellows Lecture 2023 LSE (Mar. 2023) 62nd ERSA Congress (Aug. 2023), XXXIV Conference SIEP (Sep. 2022)
1. "EU Money and Mayors: Does Cohesion Policy affect local electoral outcomes?" with Marco Di Cataldo
The EU Cohesion Policy, which delivers economic, territorial, and social cohesion in the recipient territories, is expected to affect political preferences of Europeans increasing public appreciation towards the EU. Until now, neglecting the territorial nature of the policy and the crucial role of local policymakers in its activation. Relying on a rich linear probability model, we find evidence of a systematic relationship between Cohesion Policy and local electoral outcomes. In detail, our results show that EU funds have a reciprocity and support-buying effect, and that the visibility and the magnitude of the EU Cohesion Policy play a crucial role in shaping local voting behaviours. Next, the paper tries to disentangle the main channels driving these results. We consider the different thematic objectives of EU projects, the actual improvements in citizens’ living conditions, and political accountability as possible mediators of the systematic relationship between EU funds and local electoral outcomes. These results have crucial implications. The political effect of place-based EU redistributive policies is eminently dependent on the design, the visibility, and the effectiveness of local development projects.
Presented at: 60th Ersa Congress (Aug. 2021), AISRE Web Conference (Sep. 2021), IV Seminar for New Academic Researchers (Oct. 2021), Ca’ Foscari Internal Seminars (Jen. 2022), GSSI Social Sciences Internal Seminars (Feb. 2022), Global Conference on Economic Geography (June 2022), LSE Shifting Landscape PhD Conference (June 2022), XXXIV Conference SIEP (Sep. 2022), RSA Winter Conference (Nov. 2022), Third Joint EU Cohesion Policy Conference (Nov. 2022), The Political Economy of Municipal Fiscal Policy Workshop (Nov. 2022)
2. "Childcare, Bread, and Roses. Do working women influence gender-sensitive policy?"
Persistent gender inequalities underscore the urgent need for increased investments in gender-sensitive policies. This study assesses the role of working women in shaping the political decision-making process concerning public early childcare provision in Italian municipalities. By leveraging granular historical administrative data and employing an Instrumental Variable approach, this work estimates this causal relationship while isolating the role of gender culture. On average, a 1-point increase in female employment leads to a 0.6% e change in childcare spots and to a 25% change in childcare expenditure per children 0-3. These findings remain significant across a large battery of robustness checks. Additionally, two placebo tests offer supportive evidence of working women acting as a pressure group advocating for the provision of gender-sensitive policies. The last part of this paper analyzes if this causal relationship might be mediated by the gender of local policymakers. Adopting a Regression Discontinuity Design on mixed-gender elections, this paper shows that female policymakers are no more responsive than their male counterparts to the demand of working women for early childcare.
Presented at: Inaugural Ca' Foscari Internal Seminars, Essex PhD Conference in Applied Economics, BoMoPAV, BoMoPaV (June 2023), 62nd ERSA Congress (Aug. 2023), XXXIV Conference SIEP (Sep. 2022), Meeting of Young Economists (Sep. 2023)
3. "EU funds in places with low-quality institution" with Marco Di Cataldo and Andrés Rodríguez-Pose
The quality of institutions is widely recognized as a fundamental factor for the success of the European Cohesion Policy. This study investigates whether the local quality of institutions influences the amount and allocation of EU Cohesion Policy funds between public and private beneficiaries, considering the policy's place-based structure that grants local institutions the power to influence the level of EU investments received. Relying on high quality of administrative data, we propose a novel measure of institutional quality at the municipal level in Italy, leveraging city council dismissals. To address the key identification challenges, we employ a staggered difference-in-differences (DID) strategy along with a matching procedure to ensure the absence of pre-trends between treated and control units. Our main finding reveals heterogeneous effects across different dimensions used to assess low institutional quality. Specifically, corruption within local governments leads to a reduction in EU investments allocated to the institutions themselves, whereas the low effectiveness of local bureaucracy increases EU funds directed towards public beneficiaries. These findings provide valuable insights into the varying impacts of different dimensions of institutional quality, offering important implications for policymakers and researchers studying the European Cohesion Policy.
Presented at: Cañada Blanch Lent Fellows Lecture 2023 LSE (Mar. 2023) 62nd ERSA Congress (Aug. 2023), XXXIV Conference SIEP (Sep. 2022)