Eliana La Ferrara
Eliana La Ferrara is an Italian economist and Professor of Public Policy at
Early life and education
La Ferrara earned Laurea in economics and social sciences as well as a research doctorate in economics from Bocconi University in 1993 and 1997, respectively. Thereafter, she also earned a PhD from Harvard University in 1999.
Career
Since 1998, La Ferrara has mostly worked at Bocconi University, where she currently holds the Fondazone Romeo ed Enrica Invernizzi Chair in Development Economics and acts as Scientific Director of the Laboratory for Effective Anti-Poverty Policies. Additionally, she has held various visiting appointments at the
In terms of professional affiliations, La Ferrara is the director of the Scientific Director of the Laboratory for Effective AntiPoverty Policies (LEAP). From 2016 to 2019 she was the president of the
In addition, La Ferrara performs editorial duties at
Research
Her research focuses on the economics of institutions, social norms, media, conflict and ethnicity.
Research on the economics of ethnic diversity and economic inequality
One major strand of La Ferrara's research studies how differences in terms of income or ethnicity between members of a community (i.e. the community's heterogeneity) affects the formation of groups, participation in social activities, and trust in others.
Investigating the effect of heterogeneity on group formation and participation in social activities in US communities, La Ferrara and
Research on the relationship between violent conflict and financial markets
In another strand of her research, Eliana La Ferrara studies the relationship between
In their research on illegal arms trade, Eliana La Ferrara and Stefano DellaVigna speculate that events that affect the intensity of violent conflicts (and, by extension, the demand for arms) in countries which are under international arms embargoes may be reflected in arms manufacturers' stock prices if they are violating these embargoes. Investigating this hypothesis, they show that the stock returns of arms manufacturers headquartered in highly corrupt countries with an intransparent arms trade business indeed mirror these events and are able to substantiate many of these links through UN investigations and online news stories.[25] In another study on the relationship between violent conflicts and financial markets, La Ferrara and Massimo Guidolin exploit the sudden, unexpected end of the Angolan Civil War in 2002 (due to the death of UNITA rebel leader Jonas Savimbi) to assess the effect of the conflict in diamond-rich Angola on private firms. In particular La Ferrara and Guidolin find that the event caused the abnormal returns of diamond mining firms holding concessions in Angola to decrease by 4pp but had no effect on diamond mining companies not active in Angola. In light of this finding, they suggest that violent conflict may benefit incumbent firms in the extractive sector by creating additional barriers to market entry, weakening governments' bargaining power with regard to the distribution of natural resource rents, and making the licensing of mining concessions less transparent.[26] Finally, in another study taking a global perspective, La Ferrara and Guidolin find that for 101 violent conflicts during 1974–2004, MSCI stock indices of the U.S., British, and French stock markets, overall commodity indices (though not for oil futures, agricultural products or gold), and the U.S. dollar exchange rate tend, on average, to react positively to the news of conflict onset, whereas stock markets in Japan as well as indices of agricultural commodities, oil futures and gold don't. In general, stock markets are found to react particularly strongly to news of international conflicts as well as to news of conflicts in Asia and the Middle East, the latter being driven by the extremely strong (and mostly negative) reactions of oil futures.[27]
Research on the impact of television on social norms in Brazil
A third strand of La Ferrara's research addresses the "export" of alternative social norms through the expansion of access to modern media, e.g. television. Together with Alberto Chong, Eliana La Ferrara exploits the gradual expansion of the television network
Research on reciprocity and attitudes towards redistribution
Further work In her study of informal credit transactions within kinship based networks in Ghana, La Ferrara finds that repayment of loans is effectively induced through social enforcement, e.g. the sanctioning of defaulters' offspring, and that kin members sometimes adjust their lending behaviour (e.g. offering favourable terms of credit) on the characteristics of a creditor's parents in the expectation of reciprocity, i.e. that others will do the same with their offspring.[21] Alesina and La Ferrara find that preferences for redistribution in the U.S. depend considerably on individuals' expected gains and losses from redistribution (which are strongly determined by their socioeconomic background) but also by their subjective beliefs about individual economic agency, i.e. people who don't believe that American society offers "equal opportunities" for social mobility are less averse to redistribution.[30]
Selected publications
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- Harari, M., La Ferrara, E. (2018). Conflict, Climate and Cells: A Disaggregated Analysis. Review of Economics and Statistics, 100(4), pp. 594-608.
- Bossert, W., D’Ambrosio, C., La Ferrara, E. (2011). A Generalized Index of Fractionalization. Economica, 78(312), pp. 723-750.
- Alesina, A., La Ferrara, E. (2005). Ethnic Diversity and Economic Performance. Journal of Economic Literature, 43(3), pp. 762–800.
- La Ferrara E. (2003). Kin Groups and Reciprocity: A Model of Credit Transactions in Ghana. American Economic Review, 93(5), pp. 1730-1751.
- Alesina, A., La Ferrara, E. (2000). Participation in Heterogeneous Communities. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 115, pp. 847-904.
References
- ^ a b Webpage of Eliana La Ferrara at Bocconi University. Retrieved July 7th, 2020.
- ^ People at BREAD. Retrieved February 10th, 2018.
- ^ EEA Officers 2018. Retrieved February 10th, 2018.
- ^ Access to Eliana La Ferrara's CV on the website of Bocconi University. Retrieved February 10th, 2018.
- ^ People at BREAD. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
- ^ EEA Officers 2018. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
- ^ Executive Committee of EUDN. Retrieved February 10th, 2018.
- ^ Profile of Eliana La Ferrara at IGC. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
- ^ List of fellows at IGIER. Retrieved February 10th, 2018.
- ^ Profile of Eliana La Ferrara at CEPR. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
- ^ "Profile of Eliana La Ferrara at the Econometric Society. Retrieved February 10, 2018". Archived from the original on 11 February 2022. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
- ^ Profile of Eliana La Ferrara at J-PAL. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
- ^ World Bank, IMF Launch High-Level Advisory Group on Sustainable and Inclusive Recovery and Growth International Monetary Fund, press release of June 15, 2021.
- ^ Editorial board of Economica. Retrieved February 10th, 2018.
- ^ Editorial board of the Journal of African Economies. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
- ^ Editorial board of World Development. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
- ^ "Infosys Prize - Jury 2020". www.infosys-science-foundation.com. Retrieved 9 December 2020.
- ^ "Eliana La Ferrara". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
- ^ Profile of Eliana La Ferrara at J-PAL. Retrieved February 10th, 2018.
- ^ "Economist Rankings | IDEAS/RePEc". ideas.repec.org.
- ^ S2CID 10414216– via ideas.repec.org.
- – via ideas.repec.org.
- – via ideas.repec.org.
- S2CID 16097885– via ideas.repec.org.
- – via ideas.repec.org.
- – via ideas.repec.org.
- S2CID 8467057– via ideas.repec.org.
- S2CID 15200837– via ideas.repec.org.
- hdl:10419/51429– via ideas.repec.org.
- – via ideas.repec.org.