Welcome!
I am a Ph.D. candidate in Political Economy and Government at Harvard University. My research focuses on the political economy of innovation, democratic backsliding, and state building. I use applied machine learning, network analysis, and natural language processing to study large-scale historical datasets.
Education
Prior to joining Harvard, I received a Master's degree in Analytical Political Economy from Duke University. It was financed by the Duke Economics Scholars Award. My Bachelor degree in International Law, Economics, and Politics (TU Dresden) was financed by the German Academic Exchange Service. I was awarded a Confucius Institute Scholarship, and I studied at Zhejiang University, Tsinghua University and Yunnan University in China. The President of the Italian Republic awarded me with the honorary title of Alfiere del Lavoro.
Ideas: A Book Project
In my book project, I look at the effect of markets and state institutions on the diffusion of ideas and the creation of new knowledge. Based on novel collection of large historical datasets, I study how incorporation into the same political entity affects the salience of issues and how connections across cities affects the diffusion of ideas. I build a concept networks of ideas, and using recent developments in topology applied to data analysis, I study how knowledge gaps are created and filled over time.