Algorithms and Economic Decisions 

Scientific Director: Emilio Calvano

In today's economy, consumption and other significant economic decisions are increasingly shaped by algorithms powered by artificial intelligence (AI). Despite their importance, relatively little is known about the economic effects of these algorithms, their regulatory desirability, and the resulting economic policy prescriptions. This research proposal is based on two interconnected project components that examine the economic consequences of using popular classes of AI-based algorithms. 

Asymmetric Information and Limited Commitment in Financial Markets: Macroeconomic Effects and Policy Implications

Scientific lead: Pietro Reichlin

The project's main goal is to study how financial frictions affect economic performance, with a particular focus on asymmetric information and limited commitment. Indeed, these aspects are believed to play a decisive role in understanding economic cycles, the allocation of risk and resources among households, and the appropriate fiscal and monetary policies to implement to improve social well-being. 

Banks, Infrastructure, and Global Value Chains

Scientific lead: Pierluigi Murro 

Since the mid-1990s, productivity growth in Italy has been significantly lower than in other developed countries. This trend is particularly concerning, not only because productivity is central to long-term growth, but also because it is crucial for Italy's ability to sustain its debt. New opportunities for productivity growth may arise from companies' participation in global value chains (GVCs), which are becoming an increasingly important feature of the world economy. This project aims to shed light on the factors that either promote or hinder Italian companies' participation in GVCs, with a focus on the roles played by banks and both physical and technological infrastructure.

BORDERLINE - The Hybridization of the fight against crime through non-criminal or borderline measures: principles, rules, limits, and opportunities for an integrated system

Scientific director: Antonino Gullo

The BORDERLINE research project focuses on studying measures to combat crime through three interconnected lines of investigation. These lines are classified according to the purpose of the measures examined: integration/reinforcement, replacement, or prevention of the use of criminal law.  The research aims to conduct a systematic and comprehensive review of the various existing measures, seeking to bring “order” to a network of provisions across multiple sanctioning systems. The project's ultimate goal is twofold: first, to address the fundamental issues—particularly concerning legal nature and the corresponding regulatory framework—that remain unresolved across various sectors; and second, to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of employing these tools in the fight against crime.

CHROWSEL - Sustainable Employment for Chronically Ill Workers Across the Lifespan

Scientific lead: Silvia Dello Russo 

Employees with chronic illnesses (CIE) have been largely overlooked in management practice and research. To address this gap, the project focuses on the often-invisible group of vulnerable employees, with the aim of identifying workplace interventions that support the sustainable employment of CIE individuals throughout their lives. The aim of the survey, conducted across multiple organizations, is to identify the factors—such as work design characteristics, leadership styles, interpersonal relationships with colleagues, and HR practices—that both promote and hinder the sustainable employment of CIE employees of different ages.

Contentious politics during the pandemic. Analyzing protests in Italy, 2020–2023

Scientific lead: Emiliana De Blasio

The research project focuses on contentious politics during a pandemic, defined as a time of emergency. Specifically, the project aims to analyze 1) the repertoire of contention – that is, the forms of non-institutional participation that address government policies – during and after the peak infection rates of the COVID-19 crisis, in four Italian regions selected to cover different regional subcultures and include some major metropolitan areas; 2) the politics of online contention.

D.E.W.E.Y. - DEmocracy, sustainability, and WEllbeing in Times of EmergencY. Reframing political concepts and institutions

Scientific lead: Valentina Gentile 

The project addresses the changing relationship between the welfare state and democracy in light of concurrent emergencies linked to the crisis in administrative systems, the rise in social pathologies, and the lack of political legitimacy. The widening gap between representative institutions and society, along with the rise of nationalist movements and populist ideologies—stemming from a general subversion of previous ideological frameworks, social imaginaries, and ways of life—are challenging the very foundations of representative systems.

EXPAND - Scalable algorithms for EXPloratory Analyses of heterogeneous and dynamic Networked Data

Scientific director: Francesco Giuseppe Italiano 

Many of today's major applications rely on networks, which are either explicitly represented or implicitly defined by the connected nature of the data. These networks are typically heterogeneous, with nodes and edges rich in characteristics, and they are dynamic, evolving rapidly over time. EXPAND aims to create powerful new algorithmic tools for analyzing complex networks, providing the scientific foundation and technological innovations needed to process and visualize network data. The project will explore new algorithmic techniques and specifically apply them to the field of biological networks. Special emphasis will be placed on visualization tools, which are essential for exploratory analyses that allow the user to assess the multitude of patterns and trends that emerge from multifaceted datasets. 

FARE - Firmware Analysis for Vulnerability Detection

Scientific lead: Emilio Coppa

The widespread use of embedded devices in many aspects of daily life means there are billions of them worldwide. All of these devices are susceptible to vulnerabilities in their “firmware,” the software that runs on embedded systems, and the consequences of compromising these systems can threaten the privacy and security of end users. The FARE project, “Firmware Analysis for vulneRability dEtection,” will serve as a testing ground for security analysis platforms, pursuing the following objectives: 1) To build a collection of real-world firmware, analyzing its execution context and the potential for improving emulation platforms that can run this software; 2) To develop static analysis techniques capable of identifying code segments that may contain software vulnerabilities; 3) To validate whether a security issue related to a code segment is indeed a security vulnerability.

FinPA - Public Administration in the Sign of Finance: How Public Financial Rules Shape National and EU Administrative Systems

Scientific lead: Bernardo Giorgio Mattarella

<p >The main objective of the FinPA project, “Public Administration in the Realm of Finance,” is to analyze how the growing body of public finance law has affected—and continues to affect—the structure of contemporary administrative systems, shaping their characteristics based on technical requirements that don't always reflect the broader public interest. The scientific initiatives organized by the FinPa Observatory, established as part of the project, aim to assess whether the influences of finance law have contributed to improving the administrative system or, conversely, have produced negative and dysfunctional effects.

The Impact of Human Activities on the Environment and Economic Decision-Making in a Heterogeneous Setting: Mathematical Models and Policy Implications

Scientific lead: Fausto Gozzi 

The impact of economic activities on the environment—and, consequently, on human well-being—has increased dramatically over the past century. Scientific assessments show that the current growth trajectory is unsustainable: we are likely surpassing more than one of the Earth's planetary boundaries and are approaching an environmental crisis.  It's clear that pollution and changes in land use are closely linked to economic decisions at all levels—from households and cities to countries and international agreements. It's also clear that these relationships are complex and difficult to untangle. For this reason, addressing them appears to be one of the greatest challenges facing humanity in the near future. The goal of this interdisciplinary project (mathematics and economics) is to propose, develop, and simulate a class of mathematical models that can help shed light on the mechanisms of these relationships and provide support to policymakers. 

INFONET – Information Diffusion, Networks, and Polarization

Scientific lead: Giovanni Ponti 

In this project, the study of information dissemination dynamics—with a specific focus on social networks and the Digital Society—continues to use the phenomenon of fake news as the primary example of information produced by imitating media content in form, but not in process or organizational purpose. The project revolves around the following core research areas: 1) Who is most susceptible to disinformation; 2) What are the most effective policies to mitigate the phenomenon of fake news; 3) Why do people lie to others?; 4) What factors drive public disagreement and polarization? 

INNODATA - Digital INNOvation: an assessment of the relationship between DATA, other intangible assets, and productivity

Scientific lead: Maria Savona

INNODATA is an innovative, high-profile research project that explores the connection between innovative intangibles and productivity in the digital economy. The reasons behind the widespread decline in productivity growth are complex and stem from several factors: deindustrialization, technological transformations, increasing market concentration, a widening gap between leading and lagging companies, and declining returns on R&D. The global pandemic and the resulting recession are expected to exacerbate the productivity slowdown, and companies may seek to address this by innovating—specifically, by investing in new technologies and products. In this context, the project aims to analyze the links between data and other intangible investments and the low productivity of companies and EU countries.

Intangible assets and asymmetries in European value chains: the position of Italian firms and sectors

Scientific lead: Valentina Meliciani

The project contributes to understanding how knowledge-based assets—such as patents and intangible assets—shape the distribution of value added, wages, and employment along global value chains in Europe (EUVC). Specifically, the project represents the first attempt to provide large-scale evidence of how these knowledge assets are concentrated along EUVCs and the extent to which strong asymmetries persist in Europe. In this context, the specific positioning of Italian companies within the EUVC is analyzed. Furthermore, the project offers a new conceptual framework to understand these asymmetries in terms of functional specialization, distinguishing between different intangible assets. 

Language in Entrepreneurial Ventures

Scientific lead: Federica Brunetta

Language shapes how we think, act, and perceive the world, with significant implications for organizational dynamics. This research project therefore aims to understand the direct influence of language (i.e., linguistic choices, structures, and frames) on various organizational activities in entrepreneurial ventures, and how this influence manifests in both physical and digitally mediated contexts. This project helps us better understand: 1) how organizations can embrace digital transformation by leveraging language as a tool to make communication flows and digitally mediated activities more effective; 2) how to promote innovation activities by reducing language barriers and facilitating interactions among members of the organization, thereby fostering creativity and the internationalization of businesses.

Learning in Markets and Society

Scientific lead: Marco Scarsini 

Algorithmic and machine learning methods are at the heart of the mechanisms that are revolutionizing how people interact with digital markets and society. The goal of “Learning in Markets and Society” is to identify computational methods for algorithmic decision-making in digital markets and online social environments that are simple, fair, and robust. To achieve this goal, the project plans to incorporate fairness and transparency criteria into the design of machine learning mechanisms and algorithms. To advance the state of the art in algorithmic decision-making for markets and society, we employ innovative approaches that combine tools from online learning, regret minimization, algorithmic approximation, and game theory.

LET IN Law. Liberal Arts and Digital Arts: Towards Inclusive Education and Training in Law

Scientific lead: Antonio Punzi 

The research project draws inspiration from the ongoing debate on the reform of law studies. It aims to explore the most effective methodologies for teaching law, operating within the theoretical framework of a new “technological humanism” and keeping in mind that the educational activities are intended for generations of digital natives. This sets the stage for the research group to consider how methodologies, techniques, and contexts might be integrated into the training of legal professionals. 

Liberal politics and nature. Democratic decisions regarding animals, plants, and climate change

Scientific director: Gianfranco Pellegrino 

<p > The “Liberal politics and nature” project aims to demonstrate that environmental policies can be legitimate and meet the requirements outlined in a plausible revision of the democratic legitimacy of public reasons (PRDL). Reasons stemming from natural science theories—such as animal welfare, the interests of plants and ecosystems, and the impact of climate change on the well-being and interests of future generations—can be public reasons and justify laws that restrict the freedoms of current citizens.

Made in Italy and sustainable development. A multidisciplinary project to demonstrate the decisive role of luxury and aesthetics

Scientific lead: Matteo De Angelis 

This project explores the various forms of luxury consumption, with a focus on two sectors that are highly relevant in Italy: fashion and tourism.  Through behavioral experiments that draw on neuroscience, this project suggests that internalized luxury consumption is more effective than externalized luxury consumption in improving consumers' psychophysical well-being and, consequently, in fostering sustainable behaviors. The project analyzes the phenomenon of internalized luxury (versus externalized luxury) from the demand side, specifically through experiments conducted with consumers. The project demonstrates how beauty can positively impact people's health and encourage sustainable behaviors, and how this influence also depends on consumers' approach to luxury (internalized or externalized).

MiReIL – Migration and Religion in International Law

Scientific director: Francesco Cherubini 

In a globalized world, international norms are essential for addressing the interplay between migration and religion. By combining the perspective of international law with other disciplinary viewpoints—legal, political, and economic—the MiReIL project helps investigate the dynamics underlying this interaction and address everyday social problems in a concrete manner. The complexity of this multidimensional project calls for a research team comprised of universities with long-standing ties (Trieste, Bologna, La Sapienza, LUISS), new ad hoc staff, and a work program that encompasses multiple levels of investigation.

Monitoring Risks in Financial Markets

Scientific lead: Paolo Santucci De Magistris 

The project develops new methodologies and econometric models to understand and monitor the interplay between liquidity, asset price volatility, and co-volatility. The goal is to identify early signals of impending risks that could threaten the financial system as a whole. The project goes beyond the standard approach of analyzing liquidity and volatility in a univariate setting. The project proposal focuses on methodological and modeling contributions that have implications for policymakers and financial market participants.

NEWCOMING - Mapping New Conflicts in the Age of Globalization

Scientific lead: Vincenzo Emanuele 

Recently, the study of social divides and their politicization has garnered renewed academic attention within the field of comparative politics. While some authors have discussed the decline of traditional Rockahne divides, others have highlighted the emergence of a new, overarching divide that pits the winners and losers of globalization against each other. However, the idea that, in 21st-century Western Europe, society and politics could still be marked by a widespread and predominant divide between winners and losers seems overly simplistic and unrealistic. In this context, NEWCOMING aims to better identify the multifaceted landscape of new conflicts emerging in the era of globalization, the groups arising from these conflicts, the trajectories of their political mobilization, and the impact of these processes on democracy.

NextGraal - Next-generation algorithms for constrained graph visualization

Scientific lead: Irene Finocchi 

Graph-based models are widely used in many fields of science and technology, and their visualization plays a crucial role in analyzing and exploring complex datasets. In this context, graph drawing is a key research area with the ultimate goal of creating useful visualizations of graphs and networks. Despite significant efforts over the past thirty years, the challenge of calculating effective visualizations remains largely elusive and pressing. The NextGRAAL project aims to develop new algorithmic results and visualization paradigms that will provide the scientific foundation for the next generation of software and tools. These will be able to efficiently calculate high-quality graph visualizations with various application constraints.

Organizing for resilience: how do networks and firms face adversity?

Scientific lead: Daniele Mascia 

The project “Organizing for resilience: how do networks and firms face adversities?” aims to achieve goals related to improving our current understanding of resilience, a concept that is context-dependent and multi-level. Therefore, the research project focuses on resilience at the network and organizational levels, and on how resilience at each individual level may interact with resilience at the other levels. The project advances knowledge along two main paths: 1) defining network resilience and the determinants of resilience to address various sources of adversity; 2) transferring resilience between levels.

Rethinking Corporate Reporting as an Open Platform for Pursuing “Sustainable Success”

Scientific lead: Cristiano Busco 

The project is driven by both the “spirit” and the “letter” of the new Corporate Governance Code for publicly traded companies. Published on January 31, 2020, the new code focuses, among other things, on a key theme: sustainability. “Rethinking Corporate Reporting” aims to explore the role of corporate reporting systems in pursuing “sustainable success.” What are the challenges and limitations of this transformative capacity? The project 1) focuses on the role of the finance function and the form of mediation that “integrated” responsibility entails; 2) investigates the quality of corporate and sustainability reporting, including the materiality determination process; 3) analyzes the implications for all stakeholders along the value chain.

Shifting Paradigms: Biodiversity Law, Ecological Primacy, and the Redefinition of Sustainability in the European Green Deal

Scientific lead: Raffaele Bifulco 

<p > The project aims to interpret and structure the significant (and largely overlooked) paradigm shift in the legal framework for sustainability triggered by the European Green Deal (EGD). So far, the EU has promoted sustainability in the traditional sense of “sustainable development.” Today, it is moving away from this established framework: the EGD articulates new dimensions of sustainability. In particular, the Biodiversity Strategy and its implementing measures have taken a clear step forward toward “ecological primacy,” a truly innovative concept that challenges the traditional approach to sustainability by focusing on ecological integrity. This means that ecological limits must take precedence over socio-economic systems. With this in mind, the project takes a serious look at legal developments in the field of biodiversity and the regulatory challenges that need to be addressed.

SLOTS – Smart Legal Order in DigiTal Society

Scientific lead: Marta Simoncini 

The project aims to tackle the challenge of codifying law, including through non-textual forms, to build a solid, constitutionally grounded legal framework. This framework will be supported by the theory of the philosophy of law, legal informatics, and the foundations of legal language, making the computable law produced directly by institutions legally effective. To prevent codification-based e-legal systems from becoming incomprehensible to ordinary users, SLOTS aims to 1) understand the scope and limits of machine-consumable law; 2) define the relationship between natural language and algorithmic law; 3) represent legal norms in defensible logic and temporal legal reasoning; and 4) support the law-making process.

The impact of past experience and social identity on risk perception regarding (new) unforeseen contingencies

Scientific lead: Daniela Teresa Di Cagno

In recent decades, economists studying risk perception (RP) have relied on random-choice experiments and theoretical refinements of the expected utility approach. This research demonstrates the importance of analyzing monetary choice to predict individual and aggregate economic behavior. As highlighted by studies in psychology and neuroeconomics, the psychological, social, and cognitive processes underlying RP are crucial for understanding how individuals behave in risky situations. Building on this theoretical framework, the project explores how variations in risk perception are shaped by differing personal experiences and interaction groups. The aim is twofold: 1) to assist decision-makers in assessing their own risk perception in light of unforeseen events that have disrupted their personal lifestyle and social interactions; and 2) to integrate this enhanced risk perception assessment into decision support systems, enabling decision-makers to make risky decisions that align with their past experiences and current social interactions. 

Women’s inclusion in innovation and entrepreneurship

Scientific lead: Giovanna Vallanti 

This project explores gender issues in innovation and entrepreneurship. Theories from economics, sociology, and gender studies suggest that the origins of this gender gap are rooted in complex and interconnected factors. While some studies suggest the gap begins in early childhood and continues through high school and choices for higher education, others propose that structural factors—such as family and professional roles—play a more significant role. The project aims to combine different theories and methods to assess the causes of this gap and propose management actions to reduce it in the fields of entrepreneurship and innovation.