Publications

Working Papers/Publications

Working papers

Educational Take-off and the Role of Wealth (2024), (with M. Battisti, A.F. Gravina, G. Maggio and G. Tortorici), Discussion Paper nr. 302, University of Pisa. (under review)

Publications

In journals

Hierarchy, Tasks, Space: an Analysis of Tie Formation in the Palermo Mafia (2025), (with M. Battisti and R. Musotto) (current version of: Organizing crime: An empirical analysis of the Sicilian mafia (2022), forthcoming Social Networks.

Organized Crime, Corruption and Economic Growth (2025), (with T. Fioroni and G. Trovato), Journal of Regional Science 65(2): 535-560. Data.

Unearthing the Nexus: Latifundia, Earthquakes, and the Emergence of the Sicilian Mafia (2025), (with M. Battisti, G. Bernardo and A. Kourtellos), Economics of Governance 26: 57-91.
The Economics of Extortion: Theory and the Case of the Sicilian Mafia (2023), (with L. Balletta), Journal of Comparative Economics 51(4): 1109-1141.

School-age vaccination, school openings and Covid-19 diffusion (2023), (with E. Amodio, M. Battisti, A.F. Gravina, G. Maggio), Health Economics 32: 1084-1100

Taking Care of Everyone's Business: Interpreting Sicilian Mafia Embedment through Spatial Network Analysis (2022), (with M. Battisti and R. Musotto), Global Crime (Issue 2: The Criminology of Carlo Morselli), 171-192.

Shooting Down the Price: Evidence from Mafia Homicides and Housing Prices (2022), (with M. Battisti, G. Bernardo and G. Maggio), Papers in Regional Science, 101: 659-683

Deep and Proximate Determinants of the World Income Distribution (2020), (with D. Fiaschi and A. Parenti), Review of Income and Wealth 66: 677-710.

World Interest Rates and Inequality: Insight from the Galor-Zeira Mode (2020) (with M. Battisti and T. Fioroni), Macroeconomic Dynamics 5: 1042-1072.

Resisting the Extortion Racket: an Empirical Analysis (2018) (with M. Battisti, L. Masserini, and M. Pratesi), European Journal of Law and Economics 46: 1-37.

Does EU Cohesion Policy work? Theory and evidence (2018), (with D. Fiaschi and A. Parenti), Journal of Regional Science 58: 386-423.

Organised Crime and the Economy: a Framework for Policy Prescriptions (2014), Global Crime 15, 164-190.

Transitions Out of Unemployment: the Role of Social Networks' Topology and Firms' Recruitment Strategies (2011), (with N. Meccheri) Metroeconomica 62, 24-52.

Economic Structure and Vulnerability to Organised Crime: Evidence from Sicily (2008), Global Crime 9, 198-220.

Productivity Polarization and Sectoral Dynamics in European Regions" (2007), (with D. Fiaschi) , Journal of Macroeconomics 29, 612-637.

Appropriate Technology in a Solovian Nonlinear Growth Model" (2007), (with D. Fiaschi), Oxford Review of Economic Policy 23, 115-133.

Nonlinear Economic Growth: Some Theory and Cross-country Evidence (2007), (with D. Fiaschi), Journal of Development Economics 84, 271-290.

On High-Skill and Low-Skill Equilibria: a Markov Chain Approach (2006), Metroeconomica. 57, 121-157.

Nonlinear Growth in a Long-Run Perspective" (2004) (with D. Fiaschi), Applied Economics Letters 11, 101-104.

Distribution Dynamics and Nonlinear Growth" (2003) (with D. Fiaschi), Journal of Economic Growth 8, 379-401.

Smith, Marhall and Young on Division of Labor and Economic Growth (2003), European Journal of the History of Economic Thought 10, 81-108.

Investment-Productivity Dynamics and Distribution Dynamics in a Multisector Economy: Some Theory and an Application to Italian Regions" (2003), Structural Change and Economic Dynamics 14, 185-211.

Segmentazione del mercato del lavoro ed acquisizione di capitale umano: un'applicazione delle catene di Markov" (2001), (Labor Market Segmentation and Human Capital Acquisition: an Application of Markov Chains), Studi Economici 73, 103-129.

In books

Socio-economic Inequalities and Organized Crime: an Empirical Analysis (with M. Battisti, G. Bernardo, A. Kostantinidi and A. Kourtellos) (2020), in: D. Weisburd, E. Savona, B. Hasisi, and F. Calderoni (Eds.) Understanding Recruitment to Organized Crime and Terrorism: Social, Psychological and Economic Drivers, Springer.
Migrant Smuggling Across the Mediterranean: An Economic Analysis (with E. Quinn) (2018), forthcoming in C. Gualtieri (Ed.) Migration and the Contemporary Mediterranean. Shifting cultures in 21st-century Italy and Europe ('Race and Resistance Across Borders in the Long 20th Century' Series), Peter Lang.
Smithian Growth and Complexity (2016), in Economic Theory and Its History, H. D. Kurz, G. Freni, A.M. Lavezzi, R. Signorino (Eds.), Routledge.
Growth Volatility and the Structure of the Economy (2011), (with D. Fiaschi), in Frontiers of Economic Growth and Development, O. De La Grandville (Ed.), Emerald.
Struttura economica e vulnerabilita' al crimine organizzato in Sicilia (2008) (Economic Structure and Vulnerability to Organized Crime in Sicily), in A. La Spina (ed.), I costi della criminalita. Mafia ed estorsioni in Sicilia, Il Mulino.
A Note on Simmetry in Job Contact Networks (2007), (with N. Meccheri), in A. Consiglio (ed.), Artificial Markets Modeling, Springer.
Growth Volatility Indices (2006), (with D. Fiaschi), in A. Namatame, T. Kaizouji, Y. Aruka (eds.), in: The Complex Networks of Economic Interactions. Essays in Agent-Based Economics and Econophysics, Springer.
Job Contact Networks, Inequality and Aggregate Output (2005), (with N. Meccheri), in N. Salvadori and R. Balducci (eds.), Innovation, Unemployment and Policy in the Theories of Growth and Distribution, Elgar.
An Empirical Analysis of Growth Volatility: a Markov Chain Approach (2005), (with D. Fiaschi), in J. Leskow, M. Puchet, L. F. Punzo (eds.), New Tools of Economic Dynamics, Springer.
Division of Labour and Economic Growth: Paul Romer's Contribution in an Historical Perspective (2003), in Salvadori, N. (ed.), Growth Theory: a 'Classical' Perspective, Elgar.

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