Research

Publications

Work in progress

  • Inheritance expectations and youths' education in Italy

    • Abstract: Economic and demographic factors have contributed to the rising importance of inheritance flows over disposable income across advanced economies. Focusing on Italy, where such factors have been particularly prominent, this paper shows for the first time a strong, positive association between inheritance expectations and higher education. The estimated conditional association is sizeable: individuals aged 18-25 expecting an inheritance are around 18 percentage points (approximately 50%) more likely to pursue higher education. This result is driven by anticipated housing wealth and corroborated by analysis on longer time periods. The intention to leave a bequest is strongly associated with having received one, or the expectation to receive one in the future, consistently with heterogeneous dynastic preferences for altruism. Such is the mechanism at the core of a simple 3-period model rationalizing the empirical findings. Through its influence on education, the anticipated transmission of wealth can reproduce inter-generational persistence in education, hence income – on top of wealth itself.
    • Presented at: UPF Applied Lunch Seminar, BSE Jamboree, Helsinki PhD Workshop on Economics of Education, EALE 2023 (Prague)

  • Domestic inequality and global imbalances (joint work with Andrej Mijakovic)

    • Abstract: We document that higher income inequality is associated with higher current account balances for a large set of countries. A 1 percentage point increase in the share of income earned by the top 1 percent is associated with a 0.4-0.8 percentage point higher current account balance. This relation is driven by differences in saving rates but not investment. We rationalize this finding through a two-country heterogeneous agent model and show that, all else equal, capital flows from unequal to equal countries. Non-homotheticities in preferences generate higher saving rates by rich households which translate into current account surpluses under international capital mobility. The model also incorporates an explicit role for financial markets. We illustrate how financial forces can offset the effects of inequality and induce current account deficits in unequal countries such as the United States.
    • 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*, Annual Meeting of the Central Bank Research Association - CEBRA (New York)

  • Classical and non-classical measurement errors in blood pressure measures from Understanding Society: an estimation (joint work with Thomas Crossley)

    • Abstract: 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.

Policy Publications