Doctoral Researchers in Economics

Victoria Biagi

Victoria.Biagi@liverpool.ac.uk

The Political Economy of Crime: Mafia Legacies, Local Interventions and Social Cohesion

This research project investigates the socio-economic impacts of crime, with a particular focus on mafia influence, urban development, and local policy interventions.

The first paper examines the repurposing of confiscated mafia properties for educational use in Italy, revealing that such initiatives reduce school dropout rates, particularly in mafia-dominated neighbourhoods.

The second paper explores the historical influence of the mafia on Sicily’s judiciary, showing that mafia presence reduces the number of lawyers and civil court sentences, as the mafia enforces an alternative system of conflict resolution.

The third paper analyses the local effects of Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs) in London, assessing how these orders, implemented to control antisocial behaviour, affect crime rates, local voting patterns, and the community.

Together, these studies highlight the complex interactions between crime, urban policies, and social structures, offering insights into how local policies and urban development can reshape communities and reduce crime when properly implemented.

• 1^st Supervisor: Professor Giuseppe De Feo
• 2^nd Supervisor: Dr Balazs Murakozy
• 3rd Supervisor: Dr Jakub Lonsky (External)

Jessica Botros

j.botros@liverpool.ac.uk

My research includes three interconnected projects on the sources of inequality.

The first paper takes a cross-country approach to studying how economic shocks at labor market entry affect intergenerational mobility. It examines how adverse economic conditions disproportionately harm individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, widening socioeconomic disparities in access to higher education. Differences in human capital emerge as a key factor driving inequality in long-term outcomes.

The second paper focuses on the causal effects of policies aimed at increasing the human capital of disadvantaged children in the UK. Using administrative data, Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO), it analyses the long-term impacts of these educational policies on earnings, providing insights into their effectiveness in promoting intergenerational mobility and reducing inequalities.

The third paper will examine the impact of graduating during a recession on family formation and fertility, assessing whether entering the labor market during periods of high unemployment creates intergenerational consequences for children.

• 1^st Supervisor: Dr Ian Burn
• 2^nd Supervisor: Dr Patrick Bennett

Jingwen Chen

The impact of the sharing economy on traditional industries mainly focuses on tourism, the hotel industry, transportation and ecological protection.

The paper will explore Airbnb's influence on hotels in England by estimating monthly hotel room revenue before and after Airbnb's entry in the market.

Economic research methods will be used and machine learning will also be the main part of this research.

• 1^st Supervisor: Dr Gareth Liu-Evans
• 2^nd Supervisor: Dr Jacopo Bregolin

Cheng-Hsiao Cheng

chc591@liverpool.ac.uk

Game Theory and Revealed Preference

My research interests are in the fields of microeconomic theory, behavioural and experimental economics, machine learning, and mechanism design. 

• 1^st Supervisor: Professor Michele Lombardi
• 2^nd Supervisor: Professor Ritesh Jain

Shoumeli Das

I am an applied microeconomist interested in labour, family, and development, focusing on how gender relations and social norms shape inequalities within households over the life course.

One strand of my research examines how demographic change, intergenerational relationships, and shifting care responsibilities shape labour market behaviour and economic inequalities over the life course.

In my job market paper ‘The Gendered Juggle of Grandparenthood: Labour Market Differences Within Couples’ I study how the transition to grandparenthood widens inequalities within households by imposing a new labour market penalty on ageing women. 

Another part of my work examines how social protection and health interventions can shift intra-household bargaining dynamics and strengthen women’s agency. 

You can read more about my research here.

• 1^st Supervisor: Dr Noemi Mantovan
• 2^nd Supervisor: Dr Patrick Bennett

Concetta Gigante

Concetta.Gigante@liverpool.ac.uk

Heterogenous Banks in Macroeconomics

• 1st Supervisor: Professor Michele Lombardi
• 2nd Supervisors: Dr Andrew Blake (External) and Dr Alexey Gorn

Che Hannigan

c.c.hannigan@liverpool.ac.uk

Caregiving, Gender, and Labour Market Participation: A Structural and Reduced Form Analysis of Ageing Workers

My research aims to explore how informal (unpaid) caregiving affects the employment of older adults in the UK. This project will combine causal inference techniques with dynamic structural modelling to study how caregiving impacts labour supply, wage growth, and retirement timing. I will also simulate how potential policy changes (such as paid leave or flexible work arrangements) could affect outcomes.

• 1st Supervisor: Dr Noemi Mantovan
• 2nd Supervisor: Professor Nicolas De Roos

Nariman Hanno

nariman_hanno@hotmail.com

Measuring Geopolitical Systemic Risk

• 1st Supervisor: Professor Abderrahim Taamouti
• 2nd Supervisor: Dr Mohamed Doukali

Melissa Kalitera

Melissa.Kalitera@liverpool.ac.uk

Firm Behaviour, Market Structure, and Policy Effectiveness under Carbon Pricing

My research examines how firms respond to carbon pricing policies, with a particular focus on the EU Emissions Trading System. I study how market structure, competition, and regulatory design shape pricing behaviour, cost pass-through, and technology adoption decisions. My work aims to generate evidence that informs the effectiveness of climate policy and its implications for consumer welfare and market outcomes.

• 1st Supervisor: Professor Nick De Roos

Claire Lebrun

This project uses a unique database that identifies written causal statements between economic indicators and events with daily precision, from 50,000 news and media articles collected over a decade from 172 media sources.

My project models these interactions as an evolving dynamic network, represented by daily weighted, directed graphs.

The first aim is to use the growing field of network science and models such as the preferential attachment and machine learning models for link prediction to enhance our understanding of the future dynamic of media’s influence on the global economy.

Then, these predicted interactions can be used for financial applications to create a risk index using the predicted co-mentions, based on network metrics such as the distance between each country or industry and high-risk economic indicators to measure potential exposure.

• 1^st Supervisor: Professor Aberrahim Taamouti
• 2^nd Supervisor: Dr Mohamed Doukali

Chuyi Li

Chuyi.Li@liverpool.ac.uk

My research lies at the intersection of green economics and sustainable finance, with a focus on China and the United States.

I study how green financial instruments and environmental policy frameworks interact with financial markets and the real economy across different institutional settings.

My work examines how sustainability-oriented financing is linked to broader economic and structural outcomes, including investment patterns and long-term development dynamics.

More broadly, I aim to contribute to a comparative understanding of how climate-related policies are transmitted through financial systems and shape economic transformation in both advanced and emerging economies.

• 1^st Supervisor: Dr Timothy Jackson
• 2^nd Supervisor: Dr Yavuz Arslan

Yiran Li

Y.Li461@liverpool.ac.uk

This study aims to apply empirical IO methods to analyse electric vehicles market, including consumer preference, firm behaviour, and the effects of policy incentives, thereby contributing to the understanding of green transitions in emerging economies.

• 1^st Supervisor: Professor Nicolas De Roos
• 2^nd Supervisor: Dr Noemi Mantovan

Yalew Mekonnen Marilign

yalew.marilign@liverpool.ac.uk

The focus is on how information and technology can contribute to transforming Ethiopian agriculture.

• 1^st Supervisor: Professor Giuseppe De Feo
• 2^nd Supervisor: Dr Shadi Farahzadi

Jonathan Rae

jonnyrae@liverpool.ac.uk

My research is concerned with the drivers of managerial change, with a particular focus on the degree to which senior decision makers allow behavioural factors to affect their decision-making processes when considering whether or not to replace a manager.

I am using the setting of professional football to examine this phenomena.

• 1^st Supervisor: Dr Juan de Dios Tena Horillo
• 2^nd Supervisor: Dr Balazs Murakozy

Michael Taylor

M.Taylor@Liverpool.ac.uk

My research paper will look to produce a detailed data model using tracking and action-based data within football to estimate the individual productivity of players.

This data will then be used to explore and test how individual productivity is affected by factors relating to behavioural economics and management to provide new insight to both the academic and sporting communities, particularly stakeholders within football itself.

• 1^st Supervisor: Dr Juan de Dios Tena Horillo
• 2^nd Supervisor: Dr Benjamin Holmes

Luke Walsh

lukewalsh308@gmail.com

Reducing subsidies to higher education raises concerns about people’s willingness to invest in human capital, yet little is known about these effects in settings without credit constraints.

I exploit a natural experiment in which the UK government substantially reduced subsidies by raising the price control on university tuition fees to estimate the causal impact on enrolment and early-career labour market outcomes using a difference-in-discontinuities design.

• 1^st Supervisor: Professor Ian Burn
• 2^nd Supervisor: Dr Patrick Bennett