Progetti FIS3
Fondo Italiano per la Scienza: con il bando FIS3 sono stati finanziati, con 475 milioni di euro, progetti di ricerca di elevato contenuto scientifico condotti da ricercatori emergenti, da ricercatori in carriera o da ricercatori affermati
FACT - Fostering Accountability and City Councils Transparency
PI: Prof. Alessandro Saia
Codice progetto: FIS-2024-03341
CUP J53C2500246000
This project has received financial support from the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR) under the initiative: “Procedura competitiva per lo sviluppo delle attività di ricerca fondamentale a valere sul fondo italiano per la scienza 2024-2025 (BANDO FIS 3)
Project Summary
The aim of FACT (Fostering Accountability and City Councils Transparency) is to bridge the divide between citizens and political institutions by enhancing transparency and accountability. Through a combination of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and advanced data analytics, including machine learning and natural language processing, the project seeks to close the trust gap between citizens and politicians. Our goal is to assess the impact of transparency on political discourse, decision making, and trust dynamics.
The project is structured into three work packages.
The core element of FACT is designed to assess the impact of increased transparency and accountability in Italian local municipal councils. Our objective is to create a novel database of local council meetings and electoral programs, making them accessible to the public through the innovative website, ComuneTrasparente. To evaluate the effects of this increased transparency, we will conduct two randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to examine changes in (i) the content of council meetings, (ii) the alignment of political discourse with electoral promises, and (iii) the level of citizens' trust in government and political institutions.
Secondly, another work package is dedicated to using machine learning techniques to analyze council meeting transcripts for the prediction of municipal instability. By identifying linguistic patterns that signal political or economic distress, the aim is to develop an early warning system that facilitates proactive governance interventions.
Lastly, FACT plans to create a comprehensive database of municipal council meetings across Europe. This expansion will enable cross-border research collaborations and provide insights into the dynamics of European local governance FACT is committed to making legislative processes more accessible and promoting citizen engagement, contributing to the field of political economy and providing insights to counteract the steady decline of trust towards politicians and political institutions.
NANLIFE - The Nature and Nurture of Lifecycle Health and Human Capital
PI: Prof. Pietro Biroli
Codice progetto: FIS-2024-00981
CUP J53C25002450001
This project has received financial support from the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR) under the initiative: “Procedura competitiva per lo sviluppo delle attività di ricerca fondamentale a valere sul fondo italiano per la scienza 2024-2025 (BANDO FIS 3)
Project Summary
The seed of inequality starts at conception. Individuals are endowed with different genetic variants, inherited at random from their parents, which will follow them for the rest of their lives and color the way they will respond to policy and environmental triggers. This “genetic lottery” rests at the core of human differences and provides a biologically based, potentially causal, and observable measure of heterogeneity that is constant across time and space. These characteristics make genetic differences one of the most promising measurement systems for understanding individual heterogeneity in economics.
In this proposal, I lay out how genetic heterogeneity can be rigorously, appropriately, and ethically included in economic and econometric models that analyze the evolution of health and human capital over the lifecycle. Leveraging quasi-exogenous shocks to the environment, I will focus on 5 periods over the life cycle: peri-natal shocks in access to healthcare (Milestone 1); early childhood availability of high-quality care (Milestone 2); schooling and tertiary education prompted by college expansion (Milestone 3); labor market shocks over the working life (Milestone 4); exposure to obesogenic environment later in life (Milestone 5).
I will analyze these periods using two different approaches: observational studies aiming at understanding inequality (Method A); and theoretical and structural models (Method B).
In terms of structural models, I will consider two methods of improving our modeling of individual-level heterogeneity by using genetic variants: in models of health and human capital formation; and in the econometric estimation of treatment effects.
In terms of observational studies, I will use genetic variants to better measure and quantify the transmission of inequality across generations, and to estimate how the same policies, shocks, and nurturing environments can have a differential impact on inequality depending on one’s genetic endowment.
By bridging genetics with economic modeling, this project will provide new insights into the mechanisms driving inequality and offer a framework for incorporating biological heterogeneity into economic research.