Education
  • Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education Teaching (PGCHET), Queen's University Belfast, June 2018
  • Ph.D. in Economics and Management, Thesis: Subjective Probabilities in Choice Experiments' Design: Three Essays, University of Trento, Italy, April 2013
  • M.Sc. in Conservation and Restoration of Forestry Environment and Defence of the Soil, Tuscia University (Viterbo), Italy, October 2007
  • B.Sc. in Forestry and Environmental Sciences, Tuscia University (Viterbo), Italy, October 2004
Academic career and teaching activities
  • Associate Professor, Centre Agriculture Food Environment & Department of Economics and Management (joint position), University of Trento, Italy, December 2021-present
  • Assistant Professor, Centre Agriculture Food Environment & Department of Economics and Management (joint position), University of Trento, Italy, December 2018-December 2021
  • Lecturer (type B, probation passed) in Agricultural and Food Economics (probation passed, type B), Institute of Global Food Security, Queens’ University Belfast, United Kingdom, December 2018-February 2022
  • Lecturer in Agricultural and Food Economics (type A), Institute of Global Food Security, Queens’ University Belfast, United Kingdom, December 2015-December 2018
  • Research Fellow (permanent post), Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Aberdeen, June 2013 - November 2015
  • Research Fellow, Enrico Mattei Eni Foundation (FEEM), April 2011 – June 2012
Research interests
  • Behavioural and experimental economics
  • Consumer and farmer's decision making under risk and uncertainty
  • Belief, risk and uncertainty preferences elicitation
  • Food and climate change
  • Farming and climate change
  • Farm risk management strategies and technology adoption
Research work

My research focuses on behavioural and experimental economics. The main area of research is decision making under risk and uncertainty applied to farming, food consumption, nutrition, health and environmental sustainability. Specifically, my research explores:

  • Consumers’ preferences for safe, healthy and environmental sustainable diets
  • Farmers’ behaviour towards technology adoption, adaptation and mitigation to climate change
  • Beliefs, risk and ambiguity preference elicitation using economic experiments
  • Methodological issues related to experimental auctions, contingent valuation and discrete choice experiments – for example incentive compatibility
Memberships in societies and scientific committees
  • International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE)
  • European Association of Agricultural Economists (EAAE)
  • European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (EAERE)
  • Agricultural Economic Society (AES)
  • Associazione Italiana di Economia Agraria ed Applicata (AIEAA)
Awards and honours
  • Best doctoral dissertation in Economics and Management 2011-2012, award from the Università di Trento, Italy, June 2014.
  • Ornella Maietta Best Paper Award, 9a Conferenza dell’Associazione di Economia Agraria ed Applicata (AIEAA), June 2020.
Conferences and lectures

Presentations in international conferences (last 8 years)

  • The Malleability of Food Values amid the Covid-19 Pandemic. 31st International Conference of Agricultural Economists (ICAE), 17th-31st August 2021, (online conference)
  • Eliciting farmers’ uncertainty preferences using contextualized field experiments: An empirical application in Zimbabwe. XVI Congress of the European Association of Agricultural Economists (EAAE), Prague (Czech Republic), 20th- 23th July, 2021 
  • Eliciting Truthful Preferences for Antibiotic-free Products Using the Choice Matching Approach. XVI Congress of the European Association of Agricultural Economists (EAAE), Prague (Czech Republic), 20th- 23th July, 2021 
  • Scientific information, perception and willingness to pay to reduce food safety risks. 10th Conferenza dell’Associazione Italiana di Economia Agraria e Applicata (AIEAA), Roma (Italy), June 10th – 11th, 2021.
  • Eliciting truthful preferences for antibiotic-free products using the choice matching approach. 9thth Conferenza dell’Associazione Italiana di Economia Agraria e Applicata(AIEAA), Bari (Italy), June 11th – 12th, 2020.
  • Farmers’ crop decisions: An economic experiment on subjective beliefs, risk and ambiguity preferences. European Association of Agricultural Economists (EAAE) Seminar 171: Measuring and evaluating farm income and well-being of farm families in Europe: Towards a shared and broader approach for analysis and policy design, Taenikon (Switzerland), September 25th-6th, 2019
  • Does information on healthiness, carbon footprint and meat content affect willingness to
    pay for ready meals? A non-hypothetical discrete choice experiment, 24th Annual Conference of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (EAERE), Manchester, United Kingdom, June 26th -29th, 2019
  • The influence of risk and ambiguity attitudes on bidding behaviour. 8th Conferenza dell’Associazione Italiana di Economia Agraria e Applicata (AIEAA), Pistoia (Italy), June 13th – 14th 2019.
  • Farmers’ crop decisions: An economic experiment on subjective probabilities, risk and ambiguity preferences, European Association of Agricultural Economists (EAAE), Seminar 168th: Behavioural Perspectives in Agricultural Economics and Management, Uppsala (Sweden) February 6-7, 2019.
  • Preferences for healthy and environmentally sustainable food: Combining induced-value and home-grown experiments, 30th International Conference of Agricultural Economists (ICAE), Vancouver (Canada), July 28th - August 2nd, 2018.
  • Farmers’ crop decisions: An economic experiment on risk and ambiguity preferences. 7th Conferenza dell’Associazione Italiana di Economia Agraria e Applicata (AIEAA), Conegliano Veneto (Italy), June 14th – 15th 2018.
  • Elicitation of reliable preferences for food: Does this matter in policy making? 92nd Conference of the Agricultural Economics Society (AES), Warwick (England), April 16th – 18th 2018.
  • What are your true preferences for healthy and sustainable food? An experimental investigation combing induced-value and home-grown experiments, XV Congress of the European Association of Agricultural Economists (EAAE), Parma (Italy), August 28th - September 1st 2017
  • A discrete mixture model for choices among food-safety lotteries, 22nd Annual Conference of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (EAERE), 22 - 25 June 2016, Zurich, Switzerland. 
  • Are we expected or non-expected utility maximizers? A mixture model of choice over food-safety policies with risky outcomes, International Choice Modelling Conference (ICMC), May 2015, The University of Texas, Austin, Texas, U.S.
  • Subjective probabilities, scientific information and food choices: A test of scenario adjustment in choice experiments, 5th World Congress of Environmental and Resource Economists (WCERE), July 2014, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey.

Invited speaker for seminars

  • Behavioural economics and farm risk management strategies, March 2022, Dipartimento di Economia, Ingegneria, Società e Impresa, Università degli Studi della Tuscia, Italy
  • Experimental Auctions in Applied Economics, December 2019, Dipartimento di Economia, Ingegneria, Società e Impresa, Università degli Studi della Tuscia, Italy
  • Demand-revelation issues in experimental auctions and discrete choice experiments, March 2018, Management School, Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland
  • Are we standard or non-standard expected utility maximizers? Discrete mixture models of choice over food-safety policies with risky outcomes, October 2014, School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, University of Reading, England
  • Subjective probabilities, scientific information and food choices: A test of scenario adjustment in choice experiments, February 2014, Stirling Management School, University of Stirling, Scotland
  • Subjective probabilities, scientific information and food choices: A test of scenario adjustment in choice experiments, October 2013, Scotland's Rural College, Edinburgh, Scotland
Other work

Associate Editor for Bio-based and Applied Economics, the journal of the Italian Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics (AIEAA) (SJR – Economics, Econometrics, and Finance: Q2).

I served as referee for the following peer-reviewed international journals:

  • Agribusiness
  • Agricultural Economics 
  • Bio-based and Applied Economics 
  • Ecological Economics 
  • European Review of Agricultural Economics 
  • Food Policy 
  • Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics 
  • Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 
  • Journal of Consumer Affairs 
  • Medical Decision Making 
  • Southern Journal of Agricultural Economics