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I am an applied economist and my primary research interests are within the field of public economics. In particular, they are related to the economics of taxation, tax systems analysis, tax administration, fiscal federalism and applied microeconomics.
I am a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Tax Administration Research Centre (TARC) of the University of Exeter - Buciness School. I am also Associate Researcher at the Barcelona Institute of Economics (IEB) of the University of Barcelona and I collaborate with the Welfare State and Taxation Unit (WST) of the Dondena Research Centre (Bocconi University of Milan).
Before joining TARC I have held different positions at the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics, the Economics Department (UFAE) of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), the IEB and Bocconi University. I have a B.Sc. and a M.Sc. in economics and social sciences from Bocconi University and I have obtained my Ph.D. in economics (cum laude) from the University of Barcelona. My research activity has initially focused on the presence of externalities in tax administration in a federal context. By focusing on the Spanish case I prove the existence of two kinds of externalities that might arise in tax administration policies when decentralized. These are: inter-jurisdictional externalities due to the federal institutional design (competition vs. cooperation), and tax authority's endogenous reaction to external shocks (in terms of changes in tax enforcement) as a result of tax autonomy. By taking again the Spanish framework as a case study I have also investigated the impact of the economic cycle on tax enforcement. According to this analysis tax enforcement presents a prevailing countercyclical trend in Spain, but in presence of severe economic crisis turns out to be pro-cyclical. My ongoing work further this research line by studying other aspects of tax policy and administration. Namely, I analyse the impact of tax knowledge on taxpayers’ attitudes towards the tax system through a survey experiment and the impact of audits on subsequent tax payments by the audited individuals (direct specific deterrence effect of audits) through administrative tax-return data. See research for more details. I took part to several projects commissioned by the EC (DG TAXUD, DG EMPL), Spanish national and regional administrations (Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, Ministry of Science and Innovation, Catalan Tax Agency), Italian regional administrations (Regional Council of Lombardy). See other research activities and my CV for more details.
I have published my research in international refereed journals such as Economic Inquiry, Regional Studies, International Tax and Public Finance, the Journal of Tax Administration and Applied Economic Analysis.
I am an applied economist and my primary research interests are within the field of public economics. In particular, they are related to the economics of taxation, tax systems analysis, tax administration, fiscal federalism and applied microeconomics.
I am a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Tax Administration Research Centre (TARC) of the University of Exeter - Buciness School. I am also Associate Researcher at the Barcelona Institute of Economics (IEB) of the University of Barcelona and I collaborate with the Welfare State and Taxation Unit (WST) of the Dondena Research Centre (Bocconi University of Milan).
Before joining TARC I have held different positions at the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics, the Economics Department (UFAE) of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), the IEB and Bocconi University. I have a B.Sc. and a M.Sc. in economics and social sciences from Bocconi University and I have obtained my Ph.D. in economics (cum laude) from the University of Barcelona. My research activity has initially focused on the presence of externalities in tax administration in a federal context. By focusing on the Spanish case I prove the existence of two kinds of externalities that might arise in tax administration policies when decentralized. These are: inter-jurisdictional externalities due to the federal institutional design (competition vs. cooperation), and tax authority's endogenous reaction to external shocks (in terms of changes in tax enforcement) as a result of tax autonomy. By taking again the Spanish framework as a case study I have also investigated the impact of the economic cycle on tax enforcement. According to this analysis tax enforcement presents a prevailing countercyclical trend in Spain, but in presence of severe economic crisis turns out to be pro-cyclical. My ongoing work further this research line by studying other aspects of tax policy and administration. Namely, I analyse the impact of tax knowledge on taxpayers’ attitudes towards the tax system through a survey experiment and the impact of audits on subsequent tax payments by the audited individuals (direct specific deterrence effect of audits) through administrative tax-return data. See research for more details. I took part to several projects commissioned by the EC (DG TAXUD, DG EMPL), Spanish national and regional administrations (Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, Ministry of Science and Innovation, Catalan Tax Agency), Italian regional administrations (Regional Council of Lombardy). See other research activities and my CV for more details.
I have published my research in international refereed journals such as Economic Inquiry, Regional Studies, International Tax and Public Finance, the Journal of Tax Administration and Applied Economic Analysis.