I am a PhD candidate in Political Science at Yale University with
research interests in comparative politics, political economy, Latin American
politics, deliberative democracy, experimental social science, and
formal/quantitative methods.
My research focuses on the impact of institutional design on the
relationship between citizens and politicians to better understand issues of
accountability, governance and representation.
My dissertation investigates deliberative and participatory institutional
design. I use a combination of experimental and observational analysis to elucidate
the impact of these processes on preference formation and urban politics.
In the observational study I exploit the large diffusion of Participatory
Budgeting in Brazil during the last twenty years to show that participatory
decision making processes can be effectively used to consolidate and expand the
political support of the city executive. I draw on a large-N analysis and a
nested case study design (four Brazilian cities) to corroborate the results.
Experimentally I identify a specific channel that can be used to
manipulate any deliberative and participatory discussion through the influence
of moderators. Additional ongoing projects aim to construct a new generation of
deliberative processes that are more resilient to this type of manipulation and
other framing effects.
I also have an ongoing project,
that goes back to my PhD dissertation in economics (Bologna University 2006),
on the effect of institutions and norms on candidate behavior during the electoral
campaign. The experimental design I first implemented to study candidate
behavior in the Italian election of 2006 is being replicated cross-nationally (Italy
2008, Brazil 2008, US 2008, Brazil 2010) with the objective of understanding
the influence of different electoral environments, party discipline and norms
on candidates behavior.