Current Projects

Working Paper: 

"Skill Heterogeneity in Labor Mobility: the Key Role of Education for EU Integration"

Working Abstract: Unlike the US, Canada and other countries, the European Union has been experiencing a rising rate of inter-State migration in the past several years. In this paper, I explore the patterns of migration within the European Union, differentiating by skill level, and I show that the trend is due in particular to the rising migration rate of high-skilled workers. After showing that the common explanations advanced for migration rate patterns in other countries cannot explain this peculiarity of rising EU migration, I show that a significant cause instead is the streamlining of higher education, through the Bologna Process, and in particular the mutual recognition of qualifications from other EU countries. Focusing on select EU-15 countries, I find an impact of degree recognition as high as a 43% yearly rise in high-skilled migration in the first few years after the adoption of the common qualification framework. The results are robust to different measures of migration and specifications.

Working Paper:

Co-authorship with Joseph-Simon Görlach (Bocconi University and IGIER)

"Productivity and Substitutability: a New View on Immigrant Assimilation"

Abstract: Immigrants’ assimilation often is measured by wage growth, confounding two forces: an adaptation of skills that raises immigrants’ productivity, and increasing substitutability with earlier immigrants and natives, putting downward pressure on wages. We decompose wage growth and estimate these components for the U.S. Since immigration and emigration are en- dogenous to wage growth, we instrument immigrant numbers with economic conditions in countries of origin. Results show that both skill growth and substitutability progress as migrants assimilate, that skill growth exceeds wage growth, and that small positive short-run effects of immigration on natives’ wages dissipate as immigrants become more substitutable.

Working Paper: 

"Entering Precariously: Wage Effects of Early Career Insecurity"

Working Abstract: As recent downturns have significantly impacted the NEET rate in developed countries, job instability upon young people’s entry into the labor market can have significant implications. In this paper, I focus on the effect of the expansion of more precarious opportunities, such as internships, on the wage of more stable long-term contracts, such as apprenticeships. I develop a simple model whereby two effects can be simultaneously at play when new legislation increases the share of precarious contracts that can be activated: 1) a selection effect increases the average wage of permanent contracts since the most productive workers are offered a permanent contract; 2) a dumping effect decreases the average wage since entrant workers are willing to bargain lower wages in exchange for the stability of a permanent contract. Using a 2017 legislative change to internships in Italy I am able to exploit interregional variation and estimate the overall effect on apprenticeship wages, revealing that the dumping effect is prevalent.