LUISS GUIDO CARLI

Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli – is an independent university. It was created out of a pre-existing Roman institution, Pro Deo, between 1974 and 1978.

Luiss offers an innovative educational approach at its four Departments: Economics and Finance, Business and Management, Law, and Political Science.

Its goal is not simply to convey knowledge but to instill flexibility in young people, giving them a sense of mastery over their future. Furthermore, Luiss has four Schools for graduate and professional studies: the Luiss Business School, the School of Government, the School of Law, and the School of European Political Economy. The Departament of Economics and Finance brings together specialized academic expertise in the fields of economics and finance, and in the study of quantitative methos applied to economic, social, and financial issues.

Website: hhttps://www.luiss.it/

Giovanna Vallanti

Giovanna Vallanti is associate professor at the Department of Economics and Finance of LUISS University (Rome), Director of the BA Program in Economics and Business and scientific coordinator of the LUISS Lab of European Economics.
She received her PhD in Economics at the London School of Economics in 2004 (Supervisor Prof. Christopher Pissarides), then she was researcher at the European Central Bank, at the Italian National Statistical Institute (ISTAT) and a research fellow at the Centre for Economic Performance at LSE.
She authored many publications in the area of labour policies, labour market regulation and institutions, and econometric methods for program and policy evaluation. She has been involved as a scientific coordinator and senior researcher in several European funded projects (7 Framework Programme and Horizon 2020) and national funded projects.
Her main area of interest is applied labour economics. She has worked extensively on the performance of labour markets with emphasis on the role of labour market institutions, such as firing regulation, unionization, and wage incentives, in explaining employment dynamics and firms’ performance. Her studies have embraced several fields of employment policy and industrial relations such as decentralized collective bargaining, performance-related pay schemes and contractual forms and the impact of the labour market institutional settings on workers effort and firm productivity. Recent research has been focused on the economic consequences of courts’ inefficiency and the effect of labour courts’ delays in Italy on firms’ employment decisions, firms’ performance, and workers’ employment through their effect on dismissal costs. 
She has also carried out research on the causes and characteristics of gender labour market inequalities, and, more recently, on the effects of migration on natives’ inequality and labour market outcomes.

Donato Di Carlo

Donato Di Carlo is a political economist specialised in the study of comparative industrial relations and wage-setting systems. He obtained his PhD in 2019 from the Max Planck Institute of the Study of Societies (MPIfG), in Cologne, with a dissertation on the study of public sector wage-setting in Germany and the role of the state as a political/public employer in industrial relations. After obtaining his PhD, during 2020/2021, Donato has been Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute, in Fiesole, where he conducted comparative research on European public sector wage-setting systems and the role of the state in industrial relations.
Since 2022, Donato has worked as external economic advisor to the cabinet of the major of Rome, responsible for local level social partnership with Rome’s employers and trade unions’ associations to elaborate a social pact for economic development and social inclusion. Since 2023, he is also lecturer at Luiss University in Rome.
His research has appeared in international journals such as Journal of European Public Policy, Regulation and Governance, Socio-Economic Review, Industrial Relations Journal, Journal of Common Market Studies.

Michele Cigna

Luca Cigna is a PhD graduate at the European University Institute (EUI) and incoming Postdoctoral researcher at Luiss University in Rome. In his research, he explores the evolving nature of work and the ‘new logic of collective action’ in advanced economies, with a focus on trade unions, labour markets and social policy institutions. During his PhD, he has contributed to debates at the intersection between welfare states, industrial relations and comparative political economy. His work appeared on outlets such as the Journal of European Public Policy, Social Policy & Administration, and the European Journal of Industrial Relations. Before starting a PhD at the EUI, Luca was awarded a Master in Public Policy summa cum laude at Sciences Po Paris, and a Bachelor Degree in Political Science at the University of Bologna. During his doctorate, he spent research stays at the University of Amsterdam Institute for Labour Studies (UvA-AIAS) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Department of Political Science as a Fulbright scholar.