Working Papers

Inheritance Expectations, Dynastic Altruism, and Education [SSRN]

Presented at: UPF Applied Lunch Seminar, BSE Jamboree, Helsinki PhD Workshop on Economics of Education, EALE 2023 (Prague), UPF-CREI Macro Lunch, 1st Imperial College PhD Conference in Economics and Finance, EDP Jamboree 2024 (Barcelona), 3rd PhD and Post-Doctoral Workshop in Economics and Finance (Naples), 10th CEPR European Workshop on Household Finance (Copenhagen), Workshop on the Origins of Socioeconomic Inequality (Luxembourg), 28th Theories and Methods in Macro - T2M (CREST), 28th Workshop on Dynamic Macroeconomics (Vigo), 8th Doctoral Workshop on Quantitative Dynamic Economics (Konstanz)
This paper shows that expectations of intergenerational transfers affect education decisions. Using Italian microdata, I document that youths expecting an inheritance are 19.6 percentage points (63.5%) more likely to attend university, controlling for parental wealth, income, education, and family transfers. Panel evidence using inherited housing corroborates this finding. I also show that, conditional on current resources, household heads who received inheritances are 36.6 percentage points (93.5%) more likely to intend leaving bequests, revealing strong intergenerational persistence in bequest motives within dynasties (i.e., dynastic altruism). Through a quantitative life-cycle model, I show that heterogeneity in bequest motives explains 44% of the gap in university enrollment between expected heirs and the rest, while coresidence with parents and inter vivos transfers explain 35%. The anticipated wealth transfer itself has a strong negative effect. Policy counterfactuals show that inheritance taxation raises enrollment by reducing this negative effect, especially when revenues fund student grants. These findings highlight how persistent bequest motives shape intergenerational inequality beyond direct wealth transmission.

Domestic Inequality and Global Imbalances [SSRN]

(joint work with Andrej Mijakovic)
Presented at (* if by coauthor): 12th PhD Student Conference on International Macroeconomics (Paris Nanterre), European Central Bank IPA Economic Meeting*, Bank for International Settlements Research Seminar*, 2023 Annual Meeting of the Central Bank Research Association - CEBRA (New York), 23rd RIEF Doctoral Meeting*, 27th Theories and Methods in Macro - T2M (Amsterdam), PSE-CEPR Policy Forum 2024, UCL Stone Center PhD Conference on Income and Wealth Inequality, EEA-ESEM 2024 (Rotterdam)*, BdF-EUI Conference on International Macro, Banque de France–Pierre Werner Chair Conference on International Macro
We document a robust positive relationship between income inequality and current account balances. In advanced economies, a one percentage point increase in the share of disposable income held by the top 1 percent is associated with a 0.8 percentage point increase in the current account balance. This relation is driven by inequality in the permanent component of income and operates primarily through higher private saving rather than changes in investment. We rationalize these findings using a tractable two-country heterogeneous agent model with non-homothetic preferences, where saving rates increase with permanent income. The model predicts capital flows from unequal to equal countries and helps explain the observed co-movement between inequality and global imbalances since the 1980s.

Death by Waiting? Treatment Delays, Emergency Department Congestion and Patients' Outcomes

(joint work with Matteo Lippi Bruni, and Cristina Ugolini
Presented at: EuHEA Conference 2024 (Vienna), Age-IT Meeting (Naples)

Work in progress

Decomposing cross-country trends in income inequality

(joint work with Andrej Mijakovic)

Classical and Non-Classical Measurement Errors in Blood Pressure Measures from Understanding Society: an Estimation

(joint work with Thomas Crossley)
In surveys, it is seldom possible to obtain the most accurate available measure of any variable of interest, given the high costs (monetary and not) associated to the necessary procedures. In the context of Understanding Society, we consider the setting of blood pressure measurements as gathered by nurses and compare them with self-taken and interviewer-taken ones. Assuming classical measurement error for nurse-taken measures and non-classical error for the other two sources, we estimate the parameters of interest through Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) in order to correct for any possible bias in measures exhibiting non-classical error.

Publications

Does the Feedback of Blood Results in Observational Studies Influence Response and Consent? A Randomised Study of the Understanding Society Innovation Panel

(joint work with Michaela Benzeval, Alexandria Andrayas, Tarek Al Baghal, Jonathon Burton, Thomas Crossley, Meena Kumari)

BMC Medical Research Methodology, (2023) 23:134

Policy Publications

Effectiveness of Cohesion Policy: Learning from the Programme Characteristics that Produce the Best Results

(joint work with Zsolt Darvas, Antoine Mathieu-Collin and Catarina Midoes, prepared for the Regional Development Committee (REGI) of the European Parliament, 2019)

A Monetary Policy Framework for the ECB to Deal with Uncertainty

(joint work with Grégory Claeys and Maria Demertzis, prepared for the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON) of the European Parliament, 2018)