Research
Working Papers
Municipal-level Gender Norms: Measurement and Effects on Women in Politics [WP]
with Lorenzo de Masi (Bank of Italy)
Media: Il Fatto Quotidiano, VoxEU, lavoce.info
Abstract: We study how gender norms shape legislators' engagement with women's issues. Leveraging Facebook data processed via machine learning algorithms, we construct a fine-grained Gender Norms Index (GNI) at the municipal level within Italy. Exploiting the substantial local heterogeneity in norms, we show that female legislators from conservative towns sponsor 1.02 fewer gender-related bills—a 15% drop relative to the female mean—even when compared to peers from the same party or district. This pattern does not hold for non-gender legislation. Voting data further shows that traditional norms hinder the passage of pro-equality laws, slowing down reform for the expansion of women's rights.
A Welfare Analysis of Universal Childcare: Lessons From a Canadian Reform [WP] [Last version] (submitted)
with Sébastien Montpetit (University of Warwick) and Pierre-Loup Beauregard (University of British Columbia)
Awarded the Best Paper Prize 2024 (runner-up) of the Canadian Labour Economics Forum
Academic coverage: Policy Impacts Library, Gordon Cleveland's blog post
Media: New York Times, La Presse, Le Devoir, Radio-Canada Ottawa, 98.5fm Montréal, 107.7fm Estrie, Zone Économie (Radio-Canada)
Abstract: We assess the welfare impact of the introduction of universal daycare services in Québec in 1997. Unlike the standard sufficient-statistics metric, which assumes marginal changes in fiscal policy, our approach accounts for the non-marginal nature of the program and quantifies non-pecuniary benefits. Through a structural model of childcare demand, we estimate substantial welfare gains from the policy, yielding a Marginal Value of Public Funds (MVPF) above 2.8. Using the sufficient-statistics approach underestimates welfare gains by half. Counterfactual simulations and a difference-in-differences analysis suggest that increasing availability, rather than solely improving affordability, is crucial for the effective design of universal programs.
Rent Control and Decontrol: Temporary Gains, Persistent Losses [WP] (submitted)
with Michael Abel (ESCP Business School) and Jaime Luque (ESCP Business School)
Abstract: We study a stringent rent control law introduced in 60 municipalities in Catalonia in 2020 and suddenly eliminated in 2022. Using matched rental and sale listings, we find that rents fall by 6-7% after implementation but return to pre-policy levels within a year as rental listings drop by nearly 40%. Sale listings increase by 16–17% and prices decline by 2-3%, with persistent effects after decontrol. Administrative data suggest that landlords reallocate supply from rentals to sales and rely on contracts exempt from the law or left unregistered. As a result, rent relief is short-lived, while losses in property values persist.
The gendered effects of reputational shocks in team-based production environments
with Piera Bello (University of Bergamo) and Alessandra Casarico (Bocconi University)
Abstract: This paper studies how reputational shocks are distributed within teams, using scientific article retractions as a setting in which a highly visible negative signal falls simultaneously on all co-authors while individual responsibility remains ambiguous. Linking retraction records to the complete publication histories of all involved authors (1993-2020), and applying document embeddings to over 490,000 abstracts, we assess both demand-side responses by the scientific community and supply-side adjustments by affected authors. We document large and persistent gender gaps in retraction penalties: female co-authors experience substantially larger citation losses than male co-authors from the same event and shift their research agendas significantly farther from the retracted topic. We interpret the citation gap as reflecting biased blame attribution by the scientific community: it concentrates in mixed-gender teams, larger groups, and mid-authorship positions, and it is higher for severe retractions and in male-dominated fields. The agenda shift reflects, instead, a differential behavioral response by women, who experience a larger productivity slowdown, gain fewer new collaborators, and display higher inactivity rates. Importantly, women's behavioral responses do not fully account for the demand-side penalty.
Work in Progress
Gender Norms and Parental Leave
with Lorenzo de Masi (Bank of Italy) and Francesca Barigozzi (University of Bologna)
Selected project for VisitINPS Fellowship on gender inequalities
Abstract: This paper examines the role of gender norms in mothers' parental leave decisions combining matched employer-employee data and granular Facebook-based measures of gender norms across Italian municipalities. Surprisingly, mothers from gender-conservative areas take shorter parental leave than those from progressive towns, even when working in the same firm or commuting zone. We show that this effect is driven by positive selection into the labor force among conservative women and differences in informal care availability. Comparing similarly productive mothers, we find that traditional gender norms do not affect leave duration for low-productivity mothers but significantly increase leave for high-productivity mothers from conservative areas. We interpret these findings through a model of mother's career and childcare choices with endogenous norms: when gender norms are salient, high-career mothers take longer leave to reduce guilt from deviating from traditional roles, potentially hindering career progressions and exacerbating child penalties. These results highlight the importance of gender norms in policy evaluation and design.
Whose (misperceived) norms matter? Shifting norms of paternity leave take-up
with Alessandra Casarico (Bocconi University) and Alessandra González (Duke University)
Pre-registered at AEA RCT Registry (RCT ID: AEARCTR-0016887)
Social norms and career decisions: Experimental evidence on gender and parenthood biases in STEM and non-STEM jobs
with Francesca Barigozzi (University of Bologna) and Natalia Montinari (University of Bologna)
Pre-registered at AEA RCT Registry (RCT ID: AEARCTR-0016071)
Demand side story: How female labor influences childcare supply
with Lorenzo de Masi (Bank of Italy) and Elena Renzullo (London School of Economics)
Selected project for VisitINPS Scholarship "Program type B"