I was born in Italy but grew up in Germany where I also started studying economics at university. I got my first degree from the London School of Economics and my PhD in economics from Stanford University. I have been an editor of The Economic Journal and on the editorial board of the Review of Economic Studies. I have been the scientific chair of both the main Spanish and the main European annual meetings of academic economists, as well as the director of the economic growth group of the main European network of academic economists. My main university appointments have been at the University of California, Berkeley, at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, and at the University of Mannheim.

Research interests

My current research interests are diverse. A main line of research is the extent to which girls benefit from being in a classroom with girls rather than boys in primary school. To answer this question, I have developed a new empirical methodology and assembled two large datasets with the necessary information. A second main line of research is the role of economic factors in the outbreak of civil wars around the world. Currently, I am focusing on the effect of economic shocks due to international commodity price fluctuations. A third main line of research is in international macroeconomics, where I am developing and applying a methodology to learn about the drivers of economic growth from cross-county firm and industry data.