Andrea Vaona Award

Federico Zampollo is a post-doctoral researcher at the Gran Sasso Science Institute, where he obtained his PhD in Regional Science and Economic Geography. During his PhD, he was a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science and the University of Cambridge. His main research interests lie at the intersection of public economics and economic geography, with a particular focus on the influence of local institutions, governance, and bureaucracy on socio-economic dynamics.
https://federicozampollo.wixsite.com/fedz76

I am happy and honored to receive this important recognition, dedicated to a scholar who generated research of great value and impact for the Italian and international academic community. Thank you.

Antonio Granese obtained his PhD in the Programme in Labour, Development and Innovation at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in 2024, with a thesis entitled "Essays on Applied Macroeconomics". He is currently a research fellow at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, working on empirical macroeconomics, and is also the winner of the Young Italian Economist Award 2024 for a contribution on business cycles.
https://sites.google.com/view/antoniogranese/home

I am happy to receive the Vaona Award, in memory of Professor Vaona. For those trying to build a path in academia, which is often non-linear and sometimes precarious, awards like this provide oxygen and courage. Thanks to the Vaona family and to those who make it possible. Supporting research in statistical and social sciences, particularly in empirical macroeconomics, is crucial in this time of economic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions. I thank my supervisor, Mario Forni, for guiding me through these years.

Gianni Carvelli obtained his PhD in Analytics for Economics and Management at the University of Brescia in June 2022. He is currently a research fellow at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Piacenza campus) and, in 2024, he was the winner of the eighth edition of the Vaona Award. He is an empirical macroeconomist, with research interests focused on the analysis of the macroeconomic effects of fiscal and monetary policies, particularly in relation to public debt, innovation, productivity, and economic growth. His research activity is distinguished by a marked interest in macroeconometric literature on dynamic panel models, with a particular focus on Common Correlated Effects (CCE) estimators. This interest translates into a strongly quantitative and econometric modeling-oriented approach, aimed at capturing the complexities and structural interdependencies that characterize contemporary macroeconomic dynamics and relationships. Several of his scientific contributions have been published in leading international journals in the field.
https://docenti.unicatt.it/ppd2/it/docenti/96339/gianni-carvelli/profilo

Elena Perra is Assistant Professor at the Department of Econometrics, Statistics and Applied Economics at the University of Barcelona and a researcher at the Regional Quantitative Analysis group (AQR-IREA). She is also an affiliated researcher at UNU-MERIT and a research fellow at the EMNES network. She obtained her PhD in Development Economics in 2022 within the joint doctoral programme of the Universities of Trento and Florence. Her research lies at the intersection of development economics and economic geography, with a particular focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. She analyses how infrastructure investments affect firm productivity, economic transformation processes, and territorial dynamics. She is also interested in the link between environmental economics and development, studying how environmental degradation affects growth paths and the adaptation strategies of local communities. Her work integrates geospatial methods and remote sensing techniques to contribute to the analysis of the main challenges of sustainable development.
https://elenaperra.com/

Sarah Zaccagni is Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics and Business Economics at Aarhus BSS, a member of the Centre for Integrative Business Psychology at Aarhus University, and an associated member of the Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality (CEBI) at the University of Copenhagen. Her research focuses on Experimental and Behavioural Economics, applied to various contexts. She works on issues of applied relevance using observational data and experiments. Her profile is strongly international: she has conducted research periods as a visiting scholar at the Université Paris Nanterre and the University of Chicago, regularly participates in conferences worldwide, and conducts research projects in different countries. In her commitment to promoting evidence-based public policies, she is a member of the Committee for the Promotion of Randomised Studies and collaborates with the Department of Behavioural Policy at R² – Innovation Policy Office for Behavioural Policies of the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital.
https://www.sarahzaccagni.com

In 2022, she received the Award for the Best PhD Thesis in Memory of Andrea Vaona, a recognition that gave visibility to the research contained in her thesis "Essays on Economics of Health and Education". The award ceremony, held at the University of Verona, represented an important opportunity to strengthen her network with colleagues from that university, facilitating future exchanges and visits of PhD students to Denmark.

Since 2021, the year in which I was awarded the prize, my academic path has seen a significant evolution. I have moved from being a Fixed-Term Researcher (RTD-A) in Political Economy (13/ECON-01) at the Department of Law of the University of Palermo (from December 2021 to December 2024), to holding the role of RTT in Public Finance (13/ECON-03) at the Department of Economics of the University of Messina, maintaining the continuity of my research path. Currently, my research work focuses primarily on automation and robotisation in production processes, with particular attention to the impact on the labour market in terms of employment, wages, and inequalities. I have published several articles in international journals such as Macroeconomic Dynamics, Asian Development Review, Health Economics, Empirical Economics, Economic Modelling, and Economics Letters, addressing topics such as the complementarity between robotic capital and skills, the effects of demographics and robotisation on advanced and emerging economies, as well as the impact of automation on wage differentials. I am also working on research projects that analyse historical data to understand what influence the wealth of Sicilian families in the mid-19th century had on children's enrolment in primary school, in the absence of compulsory attendance laws and child labour regulations. My teaching activity in recent years has covered courses in Political Economy, Regional Economics (during my appointment at the University of Palermo), Econometrics, and International Public Policy (following my new appointment at the University of Messina). Alongside my academic activity, since 2023 I have been collaborating as a consultant with the Asian Development Bank on research projects related to the future of industrial development and services in Asia and the improvement of macroeconomic evaluation models and long-term growth forecasting.
https://sites.google.com/view/afgravina/
https://unime.unifind.cineca.it/individual?uri=http%3A%2F%2Firises.unime.it%2Fresource%2Fperson%2F62085

Regarding the influence of the Vaona Award on my career, I can state that it is a widely appreciated recognition within the academic community. Indeed, the award was valued very positively in the selection committees I participated in, significantly contributing to the recognisability of my academic profile in the relevant scientific landscape.

Katiuscia Lavoratori is Associate Professor at Sapienza University of Rome. Before joining Sapienza, she was Assistant and then Associate Professor of International Business at Henley Business School, University of Reading (UK) and Research Fellow at Warwick Business School, University of Warwick (UK). She is a member of the Dunning Centre for International Business and a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy.

Her research activity lies at the intersection of International Business and Economic Geography, with particular reference to the economic analysis of firms' location choices, the relationship between agglomeration and productivity, Industry 4.0, and the new geography of global value chains. Her work on these topics has received numerous awards, including the Copenhagen Business School Prize, the Global Strategy Journal Best Paper Award, and the award for the Best PhD Thesis in Economics 2019–2020, jointly awarded by the Department of Economics and Management of the University of Trento and the Department of Economics of the University of Verona.

Her research has been published in some of the leading international scientific journals in the field, including Journal of International Business Studies, Regional Studies, Global Strategy Journal, Journal of Regional Science, Journal of Technology Transfer, and Economics of Innovation and New Technology. She also serves as Associate Editor of the Journal of Industrial and Business Economics and has been a recipient of the BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grant 2023.

She teaches Industrial Economics and Economics and Management of Innovation at the postgraduate level. She has also served as Programme Director of the Master of Science (MSc) in International Business and Business Transformation, a double degree programme jointly offered by Henley Business School and POLIMI Graduate School of Management.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiuscia-lavoratori-9b02a093/
Homepage: Dr Katiuscia Lavoratori | Henley Business School

Receiving the award for the Best PhD Thesis in Economics in Memory of Andrea Vaona was a great honour and the perfect way to conclude my PhD journey and begin the next chapters of my academic career.

Giovanna D'Inverno is Associate Professor of Mathematical Methods for Economics at the Department of Economics and Management of the University of Pisa. She is also a research associate at the Leuven Economics of Education Research (LEER) centre at KU Leuven. She is the author of numerous scientific articles on the development of mathematical methods for performance evaluation in the public sector, with a particular focus on sustainability issues, such as waste and water management, education, and local government spending. She participates in various national and international research projects, collaborating with consulting agencies and public institutions.
https://www.unipi.it/ateneo/organizzazione/persone/giovanna-dinverno-118020/

Flavio Santi is Associate Professor of Economic Statistics at the Department of Economics and Management of the University of Trento. He obtained his PhD from Sapienza University of Rome in 2016 and carried out his research activity as a collaborator and post-doctoral researcher at the University of Trento until December 2018. From December 2018 to December 2021, he was a senior researcher at the Department of Economics of the University of Verona and, subsequently, Associate Professor in the same department until December 2022. His research interests focus primarily on spatial statistics, particularly on modelling techniques and computational problems related to estimation.
https://www.flaviosanti.it/

The Vaona Award represented an important recognition for the research work I carried out during my PhD and an incentive to continue my professional path along this road. It is particularly positive that this initiative continues to be renewed year after year, honouring Andrea Vaona's memory through the recognition and valorisation of young researchers' work.

Giulia Pavan is an economist at Compass Lexecon, where she applies econometric techniques to antitrust and competition policy. She has assisted clients in civil litigation and in the quantification of damages in cases relating to anti-competitive conduct in judicial proceedings in the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, France, and Belgium. She has also assisted clients in merger cases and abuse of dominance cases before the European Commission and national competition authorities. Her experience covers a wide range of sectors, including high technology and transport (trucks, trains, and airlines). Before joining Compass Lexecon, Giulia was a post-doctoral researcher at the Toulouse School of Economics, where she worked on both industrial organisation and environmental economics. Giulia has acted as a speaker at conferences and training courses at the University of Pavia and Bocconi University in Milan. Giulia holds a PhD in Econometrics and Empirical Economics from the University of Rome Tor Vergata and the Einaudi Institute of Economics and Finance, specialising in empirical industrial organisation.
https://sites.google.com/site/pavangiulia/home

In 2017, I had the privilege of receiving the Vaona Award, in one of its first editions. It was an important recognition for me at the beginning of my professional path, which valued the work carried out during my PhD and the interest in the themes addressed in my thesis, particularly the link between public policies and environmental economics. The award also gave me the opportunity to learn more about Professor Vaona's scientific activity, which inspired me for subsequent work. Although I now work in a consulting firm, the methodological rigour and empirical approach developed during my years in academia continue to guide my way of approaching professional challenges. I remain deeply grateful for this recognition, which gave me confidence and motivation to pursue my goals with determination.