I am a Macroeconomist. In my research, I combine quantitative models and micro data to study how micro level heterogeneity and frictions in goods or labor markets interact with macro outcomes.
I am currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania. For the academic year 2023/24, I was a Junior Scholar at the Minneapolis Fed. I have obtained my PhD from the European University Institute (Florence) in 2023.
R&R at Review of Economic Studies
ECB Young Economist Prize 2023, EEA & UniCredit Best Job Market Paper 2022
This paper develops an equilibrium theory of expenditure inequality and price dispersion to study how retail prices respond to households' shopping behavior. The theory features incomplete markets, non-homothetic preferences, and equilibrium price dispersion for multiple varieties. Endogenous heterogeneity in the effort to search for prices shifts the price elasticity faced by retailers with the composition of demand. Retailers optimally charge higher margins for goods consumed by low-effort households. Predictions on the shape of price distributions are consistent with evidence from US scanner-data. Heterogeneity in search effort yields differences in prices paid for identical goods and reduces inequality in consumption relative to expenditure. The equilibrium response of posted prices across products doubles this direct effect of search on inequality. The model reconciles conflicting evidence on the cyclicality of retail markups and shows that the response of posted prices to a redistributive tax partially compensates net-contributors for their losses.
with Annika Bacher and Philipp Grübener
R&R Journal of Monetary Economics (CRNYU Special Issue)
This paper provides novel evidence that the added worker effect – labor force entry upon spousal job loss – is substantially stronger for young than old households. Using a life cycle model of two-member households in a frictional labor market, we study whether this age-dependency is driven by heterogeneous needs for or availability of spousal insurance. Our framework endogenizes asset and human capital accumulation, as well as arrival rates of job offers, and is disciplined against U.S. micro data. By means of counterfactuals, we find a strong complementarity across both margins: A large added worker effect requires both high spousal earnings potential (human capital) relative to the primary earner and limited access to other means of self insurance (assets). Together, both margins can account for the observed age differential in the added worker effect. The model predicts substantial crowding out of spousal labor supply by unemployment benefit extensions among young households, in line with their stronger need for spousal insurance.
with Caterina Mendicino and Marcel Peruffo
This paper studies the distributive effects of banking sector losses on household consumption and welfare. Using data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey, we document that in response to declines in bank equity returns the consumption of low-income households decreases by roughly twice as much as the average. To understand this result, we develop a heterogeneous-agent model featuring rich income and portfolio heterogeneity and a banking sector subject to financial frictions. The model matches the empirical inequality in consumption responses following a shock to banks’ asset returns. Households at the bottom of the income distribution suffer from losses in labor earnings and from an increase in the cost of borrowing. In contrast, high-income consumers can take advantage of temporarily low asset prices and high future returns and increase their savings to sustain a higher consumption in the medium term. In fact, a fraction of households benefits from distress in the banking sector. A debt-financed asset purchase program can improve welfare, especially for low-income individuals, by dampening the increase in credit spreads and stabilizing investment.
Spousal Insurance Around the World
with Annika Bacher, Kevin Donovan, Philipp Grübener, and Todd Schoellman
Customer Capital and Corporate Borrowing
with Luigi Falasconi and Gianmarco Ruzzier
Estimating the Costs and Benefits of Price Search
with Max Bres
At the EUI I have been a teaching assistant for different core and advanced courses at the PhD level, including courses on heterogeneous agent models, search frictions and computational methods. Here you can find some lecture notes I wrote for a PhD level course on search frictions and some sample codes for a course on computational methods.