Russo, Gianluca

I am an applied micro-economist who uses natural experiments and rigorous empirical methods to study questions at the intersection of political economy, economic development and economic history. My research focuses on the determinants of cohesive, well functioning societies, the causes of their breakdown, and the rise of illiberal regimes.

Prior to joining the IAE-CSIC as a postdoctoral fellow, I was a postdoc at Pompeu Fabra. I hold a Ph.D in Economics from Boston University. During the my time as a postdoc in Barcelona, I published one chapter of my dissertation in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, joint with Daron Acemoglu, Giuseppe De Feo and Giacomo De Luca. In the same period, I have won a small research grant from STEG CEPR to study te role of transitional justice in South Africa on nation building and economic development, and since then have traveled twice to South Africa for reasearch, in 2022 and 2024. In 2022 I also visited Northwestern University.