LSE in Fellow in Government
After my undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Bologna I came to the LSE as visiting master student to study Political Economy. In 2012, I started my PhD research, which studies the impact of information flows on a different range of outcome variables such as voting, citizens’ perceptions, financial volatility and public spending decisions.
Outside academia I previously worked in a Research Centre (International Growth Centre) and in Asset Management (MainStreet Capital Partners).
Research Papers
'Information and Crime Perceptions: Evidence from a Natural Experiment'
(joint with Luigi Minale, UCL)
This paper investigates the influence of media on the beliefs and perceptions individuals hold, with a focus on crime perceptions. We study the case of Italy, where the majority of television channels have been under the influence of the former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for more than a decade. First, we document that these channels systematically over represent crime news compared to others. We then test if individuals revise their perceptions about crime when exposure to news programs broadcast by a specific group of partisan channels is reduced. In order to identify the causal effect we exploit a natural experiment in the Italian television market where the staggered introduction of the digital TV signal led to a drastic drop in the viewing shares of the channels above. Combining unique data on each channel’s crime news coverage and prime-time viewing shares, we find that reduced exposure to crime-related news decreased concerns about crime, an effect that is mainly driven by older individuals who, on average, watch more television and use alternative sources of information (such as Internet, radio and newspapers) less frequently. Finally, we show that this change in crime perceptions is likely to have important implications for voting behaviour.
Organized Crime and Public Spending
(joint with Marco Di Cataldo)
This paper tries to identify and measure the impact of organized crime on the public spending of the city council where they operate. More precisely, I look at the three biggest crime organizations in Europe, i.e. Camorra, Cosa Nostra and N’drangheta, all located in the South of Italy.
'Political Information flows and the European Sovereign Crisis'
In this paper, I empirically examine the close relationship that ties information flows and financial markets behaviour. More specifically, I look at a very determined type of information, i.e. political news, and to a very peculiar crisis, the European Sovereign Debt Crisis. Did political information flows have an impact on sovereign debt volatility? Did they have a concrete role in shaping investors beliefs and expectations?
Supervisors: Professor Simon Hix, Dr Valentino Larcinese
Research interests
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Political economy
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Comparative political science
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Econometrics
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Game theory
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Media bias
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Organized crime
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Behavioural economics
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Macroeconomics of uncertainty
Contact
Website: nicolamastrorocco.com
Twitter: @mastrorocconick
Email: N.Mastrorocco@lse.ac.uk