Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

International & Development Economics

Group members: Emilio Colombo, Lucia Corno, Rosario Crinò, Marco Lossani, Maria Luisa Mancusi

Overview: The research group is interested in the study of International Trade, International Finance and Development Economics. The group's researchers have published their works in several economic journals including: American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, Econometrica, Economica, Economic Inquiry, Economic Journal, Economics Letters, European Journal of Finance, International Journal of Forecasting, Journal of Applied Econometrics, Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of Economic Surveys, Journal of the European Economic Association, Journal of International Economics, Journal of International Money and Finance, Labour Economics, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Research Policy, Review of Economic Studies, Review of Financial Economics, World Development, World Economy. The group's members teach undergraduate and graduate courses in all related areas of Economics.

 


Research Topics
 

1. International Trade

Current research topics:

  • effects of international trade and offshoring on employment, wages, health and well-being, both at the micro (firm and region) level and at the aggregate (country) level;
  • effects of trade on economic performance, with a special focus on innovation and productivity;
  • interaction between trade and economic distortions and its consequences for innovation;
  • determinants and aggregate implications of firm heterogeneity.
     

2. Empirical International Finance

Current research topics:

  • determinants of real exchange rates;
  • effects of different exchange rate regimes;
  • sources of debt and financial crises in developed and developing countries;
  • monetary policy rules and financial stability;
  • empirical tests of Purchasing Power Parity;
  • machine learning tools applied to the exchange rate.
     

3. Development Economics

Current research topics:

  • effects of harmful traditions, such as female genital cutting and child marriage, on economic outcomes in developing countries, using randomized control trials to evaluate the effectiveness of various interventions at reducing their prevalence;
  • impact of race and gender stereotypes and prejudice on academic performance both in developed and in developing countries;
  • implications of gender stereotypes for students’ track choice in Italian secondary schools;
  • analysis of homelessness - the most extreme form of poverty in developed countries – using different rounds of original data on homeless people in various cities;
  • effects of risky sexual behavior on economic outcomes in Africa.

 


Presentation of the Research Group