Annual report

XXXVIII Cycle

In 2023, the activities of first-year doctoral students proceeded smoothly. Students engaged in study and training activities, attending courses outlined in the educational offer and seminars/webinars proposed by instructors. Additionally, they conducted research activities primarily aimed at refining and improving the foundational idea of their respective initial research projects.

The following details will be provided:
a) List of enrolled doctoral students in the XXXVIII cycle.
b) Information regarding the study, training, and research activities of each doctoral student.

a) List of enrolled doctoral students in the XXXVIII cycle:
Doctoral students with a scholarship: Yuelin Li, Augusto Palombo, Dario Pantano, Angela Zanoni.
Doctoral student without a scholarship: Massimo Ziad Ammar.

b) Information on the study, training, and research activities of each doctoral student.

Yuelin Li
The doctoral candidate attended the following summer schools: Network Econometrics, The Italian Econometric Association (SIdE-IEA), and the Venice Centre in Economic and Risk Analytics for Public Policies (VERA). Additionally, she participated in the following seminars: 6th Workshop on Economic History Sapienza - "Challenges of Today and Historical Responses: Interaction between Innovation, Labor, Policies, and Wealth," keynote speaker (Josphe Zeira), University La Sapienza, Rome; 5th Workshop on Economic History Sapienza, keynote speaker (Leticia Arroyo Abad), University La Sapienza, Rome; Workshop: Causes and Consequences of Technological Progress, University La Sapienza, Rome; 4th Workshop on Economic History Sapienza, keynote speaker (John Turner), University La Sapienza, Rome. In 2023, she began collecting and analyzing data for empirical analysis to incorporate into the first chapter of her thesis. The research aims to explore the relationship between socio-economic conditions and superstitious behaviors.

Augusto Palombo
In 2023, the doctoral student attended the courses specified by the program, successfully completing the final exams. He also participated in seminars organized by his department. Benefiting from the PNRR scholarship, Palombo completed an internship at the hosting entity ANIMA. Additionally, he attended the Summer School in Experimental Economics organized by Prof. Attanasi. In the second half of the year, he won the tutoring competition for the Advanced Statistics course at the Faculty of Political Sciences. Finally, throughout the year, he studied scientific literature to develop his thesis under the supervision of Professor Giuseppe Attanasi.

Dario Pantano
During 2023, the doctoral student followed the courses outlined in the doctoral program and successfully passed the final exams. Subsequently, he began studying literature to develop the first chapter of his doctoral thesis on the use of spatial data, supervised by Prof. Valerio Sciabolazza. At the same time, he initiated work on the second chapter of the thesis under the supervision of Prof. Silvia Coretti and Prof. Giuseppe Attanasi.

Angela Zanoni
In 2023, the doctoral candidate attended the courses specified in the doctoral program and successfully passed the final exams. She then dedicated herself to studying literature for the development of her doctoral thesis in the field of spatial econometrics and network analysis.

Massimo Ziad Ammar
During 2023, the doctoral student followed the courses specified in the doctoral program and successfully passed the final exams. He also participated in the Summer School of Experimetrics & Behavioral Economics in Soleto organized by Prof. Attanasi. Finally, he joined a research group analyzing the risk profiles of companies compliant with the European Green Deal.


XXXVII Cycle

In the course of 2023, the activities of second-year doctoral students proceeded smoothly. These students were involved in study and training activities, including seminars/webinars organized by the Department of Economics and Law and other externally organized scientific events. Primarily, second-year students during the academic year 2022/23 focused on developing their research projects and completing the first chapter of their doctoral theses. Some second-year doctoral students decided to conduct their research activities at foreign institutions as visiting researchers, while others postponed this experience to the upcoming year (2024). All doctoral students enhanced their specific knowledge related to their chosen research topic. Some of them have already started disseminating preliminary results of their research through participation in conferences and workshops.

The following details will be provided:
a) List of enrolled doctoral students in the XXXVII cycle;
b) Information regarding the study, training, and research activities of each doctoral student in 2023.

a) List of enrolled doctoral students in the XXXVII cycle:
Doctoral students with a scholarship: Margherita Bove, Gianmarco De Santis, Michela Piccari, Alessandra Quintigliano, Federica Maria Raiti, Matteo Sabatini, Francesco Tucci.
Doctoral student without a scholarship: Hernan Daniel Munoz.

b) Information on the study, training, and research activities of each doctoral student in 2023.

Margherita Bove
The doctoral candidate Margherita Bove requested and obtained a suspension period to work as a consultant on a research project related to armed conflict issues at the World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University (UNU-WIDER). The suspension period covered the entire year 2023, and the doctoral candidate was readmitted starting January 2024. She presented preliminary results of a study on the long-term effects of colonial policies on attitudes and gender norms in Mozambique at the annual conference of the Italian Society of Development Economics (SITES). Additionally, she attended the DevEconMeet (Development Economists Meeting).

Gianmarco De Santis
During 2023, the doctoral candidate presented his works at various international scientific conferences. Thanks to the mobility grant he won, he spent visiting periods at the following institutions: University of Chicago, Max Planck Institute. He served as a teaching assistant for Political Economy courses at Roma and Latina. Finally, he participated in events such as the Experimetrics and Behavioral Economics Summer School in Soleto, Max Planck Institute weekly internal meetings (Engel’s research group) in Bonn, University of Chicago cycle of lectures in Chicago, and experiments at University of Chicago Mindworks Lab.

Michela Piccari
During 2023, Piccari deepened the study of literature on environmental economics, climate change, economic inequality, and gender. The focus was on the empirical analysis of the formation of environmental preferences in young adults following a strong macroeconomic shock, with a particular focus on gender differences. She also participated in various seminars and conferences organized by the department (Lunc Economics Seminars, Sapienza Economics Seminars, SESS PhD Seminars). Additionally, she attended the XVI Winter School in Canazei on inequality and social welfare theory, the X ECINEQ Conference, and the SIEP Conference. Piccari also won two scholarships for tutoring activities for undergraduate students during 2023.

Federica Maria Raiti
During the second year of the doctoral program, the candidate actively participated in workshops and conferences related to behavioral economics and economic development. She organized a statistics course for first-year SESS doctoral students in May and June. Raiti also participated in the UNCTAD YSI Summer School, Finance, Growth, and Distribution: Policy Challenges in a World of Cascading Crises, 3rd Development Economists Meeting, The Human Advantage Conference 2023, Fairness and Moral Mind Workshop FAIR, and more. Currently, she is part of a project on climate adaptation and mitigation in Papua New Guinea and is doing an internship at the Links Foundation at the Polytechnic University of Turin.

Matteo Sabatini
During the second year of the doctoral program, the candidate continued his research on two fronts. He completed the first chapter of the thesis titled "Institutional (Dis)trust in the Social Network Age" and focused on econometric analysis. He worked on studying literature to develop the second and third chapters of the thesis, focusing on the role of economic and opportunity inequalities in individuals' perception of various aspects of their daily lives. Sabatini also participated in conferences, seminars, and tutoring activities during 2023.

Francesco Tucci
During the second year of the doctoral program, Tucci participated in the Workshop on Media, Technology, Politics, and Society organized by the Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance. He continued the literature review and empirical analysis for the development of the first chapter of his thesis, which focuses on the interaction between parliamentary voting behavior and lobbying and electoral financing activities in the U.S. context. He also worked on the other two chapters of the thesis, exploring areas of political economy applied to media economics and legislative activities.

Hernan Daniel Munoz
In March 2023, Munoz published an article in the Statistical Journal of the International Association for Official Statistics (SJIAOS) on the loss and recovery of credibility in official statistics in Argentina. He then studied literature to develop the second chapter of the thesis under the supervision of Professor Giorgio Alleva. In May 2023, he started working on a parallel project with Professor Angela Sutan (Burgundy School of Business) to establish criteria for the choice of indicators through discrete choice experiments. He continued working on the "Food System Countdown Initiative" research project, and the results were recently published in Nature Food.


XXXVI Cycle

In 2023, all doctoral students enrolled in the XXXVI cycle made further progress in the development of their theses.

The following details will be provided:
a) List of enrolled doctoral students in the XXXVI cycle;
b) Information regarding the study, training, and research activities of each doctoral student in 2023.

a) List of enrolled doctoral students in the XXXVI cycle:
Doctoral students with a scholarship: Gabriella De Sario, Yang Haoran, Renan Serenini Bernardes.

b) Information on the study, training, and research activities of each doctoral student in 2023.

Gabriella De Sario
During the first quarter, De Sario revised the first chapter of her thesis, "Citizens' Attitudes Towards Climate Mitigation Policies: The Role of Occupational Exposure in EU Countries," which was subsequently published in the Kyklos Journal. She then embarked on a visiting research period, presenting her project and initiating the initial investigation at the Grantham Institute of the London School of Economics under the supervision of Professor Misato Sato. In the second quarter, she focused on data collection, a crucial element for the research project. De Sario underwent a detailed project review with external tutors, receiving valuable feedback to refine the methodological and conceptual aspects. During the third quarter, she dedicated herself to theoretical and practical deepening through participation in courses and seminars related to the research project. This phase of supplementary training contributed to consolidating the necessary foundations for the continuation of research activities. In the fourth quarter, De Sario focused on drafting the thesis project, "Essay on Climate Change and Market Labour Transition."

Yang Haoran
In the first part of 2023, Yang Haoran completed the first two chapters of his doctoral thesis during a visiting period at Ohio State University. He also attended various research seminars during the visiting period. He participated in the 2023 AAEA Annual Conference in Washington D.C. In the second part of 2023, the candidate began attending a course on Z-Tree programming at the University of Constance and continued working on the development of the third chapter of his doctoral thesis.

Renan Serenini Bernardes
From January to June 2023, Serenini continued his visiting period at the University of Chicago under the supervision of Luc Anselin. He attended courses on Machine Learning for Economists and Spatial Regression Analysis. From June to September, he focused on developing the third chapter of the thesis and presenting his work at scientific conferences. From September to December 2023, he was on a visiting period at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil, under the supervision of Prof. Pedro Amaral.









XXXVI Cycle

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