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Fabio Sabatini's Curriculum Vitae

Fabio Sabatini received a PhD in Economics from the University of Rome La Sapienza. He is currently Research Fellow at the Department of Economics of the University of Siena and he collaborates with the European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises at the University of Trento. He previously held posts at the Departments of Economics of the Universities of Padova, Cassino and Rome La Sapienza. He has written numerous articles on social capital and he is the author and editor of Social Capital Gateway, website providing resources for social sciences acknowledged by the Journal of Economic Education as an exemplary material for teaching and learning economics. He is currently rated among 5% top world economists according to 4 of the 33 ranking criteria established by RePEc (the largest online bibliographic database in economics): 1) number of downloads, 2) number of abstract views, 3) number of downloads, weighted by number of authors; 4) number of abstract views weighted by number of authors.
He currently teaches “Development Economics”, “Mathematical Economics”, and “Social Capital and Institutions in Development processes” at the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Siena.

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Personal details, Current position, Education, Grants and awards, Professional experience, Skills, Publications and manuscripts (Articles in peer-reviewed journals, Book chapters, Books, Working papers, PhD thesis), Seminars and conferences, Social capital web site, Works in progress.

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Personal details

Place and date of birth: Rome, Italy, 28th May 1971
Nationality: Italian
Civil status: married to Alessandra

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Current Position

• Research Fellow, Department of Economics, University of Siena.

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Other current professional activities

• Coordinator of the Research Project "The role of the cooperative sector in the accumulation of social capital" at the European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises (Euricse), September 2009 - August 2011.

• Lecturer of Development Economics, Mathematical Economics, and Social Capital and Institutions in Development processes at the University of Siena, Faculty of Political Science.

• Editor of the NEP (New Economics Papers) Report on Social Norms and Social Capital, and of the NEP Report on Human Capital and Human Resource Management within the RePEc Project. NEP Reports are sponsored by the State University of New York.

• Author and editor of Social Capital Gateway, web site providing resources for the study of social capital acknowledged by the Journal of Economic Education as an exemplary material for teaching and learning economics.

• Referee for the following peer-reviewed journals: Cambridge Journal of Regions Economy and Society, Comparative Political Studies, European Economic Review, European Journal of Political Economy, International Journal of Educational Research, International Sociology, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis, Journal of Economic Psychology, Journal of Economic Surveys, Journal of Socio-Economics, Mountain Research and Development, QA - Rivista dell'Associazione Rossi Doria, Organization Science, Organization Studies, Regional Studies, Rivista di Politica Economica, Scienze Regionali, Small Business Economics, Social Networks, Social Science & Medicine, Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie (Journal of Economic & Social Geography).

• Reviewer for the Economic & Social Research Council (UK), and for Routledge (Taylor & Francis Group) and Palgrave MacMillan.

• Besides my research activity, I am a passionate amateur photographer. Follow the link to see my photostream on Flickr.

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Education

• June 2006, PhD in Economics, University of Rome La Sapienza. Thesis title: "An Inquiry into the empirics of social capital and economic development". Supervisors: Claudio Gnesutta (University of Rome La Sapienza) and Pier Luigi Sacco (IUAV University of Venice). Graduation Committee: Carlo Borzaga (University of Trento), Guido Cozzi (University of Macerata) and Francesco Farina (University of Siena).

• September 2001, enrollment with 3-year grant in the PhD programme in Political Economy, University of Rome La Sapienza. Courses successfully attendend during first two years: Econometrics, Economic Growth, Economic Policy, Economics of Contracts, Dynamic systems for Economics and Management, History of Economic Thought, Linear Algebra and Optimization Theory, Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, Probability and Statistics, Uncertainty and General Equilibrum.

• March 2001, Laurea (University Degree) in Economics, University of Rome La Sapienza, Faculty of Economics. Dissertation: "The OECD's Economic Policy: Assessing the Jobs Strategy in Western Europe".
Distinction: 110/110 cum laude.

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Grants and awards

• From November 2006 to October 2010, Research Fellowship from the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Siena for a Research Project on "The role of IFIs in building social capital in developing countries".

• From September 2006 to September 2007, Research Grant from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for a Research Project on "The role of FAO and IFAD in building social capital in rural areas".

• From November 2005 to October 2007, Research Fellowship from the University of Cassino for a Research Project on "Social capital, human capital and local development".

• From November 2001 to October 2004, PhD Scholarship from the University of Rome La Sapienza.

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Previous positions

• November 2007 - October 2010, Research Fellow, University of Siena, Department of Economics.

• December 2005 - August 2009, Research Associate at the SPES Development Studies Research Centre of the University of Rome La Sapienza.

• July 2006 - July 2007, Holder of a Research Grant funded by the Food and Agriculture Organization for the research project The Role of FAO and IFAD in Building Social Capital in Rural Areas, hosted by the University of Padua, Department of Economics Marco Fanno.

• October 2005 - November 2006, Research Fellow at the University of Cassino, Department of Economics.

Other teaching and research experience

• January 2008 - August 2009, Consultant of the Department of Economics of the University of Trento within a research project on the measurement of social capital in the Province of Trento.

• January 2008 - January 2009, Lecturer of European Economic Policy at the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Siena.

• November 2006 - January 2009, Teaching assistant in Political Economy at the Faculties of Economics and Political Science of the University of Siena and in Business Economics at the Siena University for Foreigners.

• September 2005 - September 2008, Lecturer of Economics of European Integration at the Università Telematica Guglielmo Marconi, Faculty of Economics.

• March 2008 - July 2008, Lecturer of Social Capital and Economic Development at the Master in Non-farm Activities and Rural Development in Developing Countries of the University Sapienza of Rome.

• October 2007 - December 2007, consultant of the Associazione Studi e Ricerche per il Mezzogiorno within the Research Project "Capitale sociale e sviluppo economico nel Mezzogiorno italiano" (Social capital and economic development in the Italian Mezzogiorno).

• September 2007 - December 2007, Consultant at the International Project Office of the Università Telematica Guglielmo Marconi for the development of research projects to be submitted to the European Commission, with particular regard for the 7th European Framework Programme (7FP). Responsible for the development and management of the Collaborative project SOCIAL NET, ‘The role of social capital and public policy in determining EU development trajectories’, submitted to the 7FP.

• January 2006 - January 2007, Consultant of the University of Tuscia, Faculty of Economics, within the research project on "Social capital and local development: the case of Tuscia".

• July 2006 - November 2006, Consultant of the Organisation for the Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Task: preparing a paper to be used at the seminar on Social Enterprise and Social Capital organised by the OECD LEED Centre for Local Development and the World Bank, Trento, 15-18 November 2006.

• August 2006 - October 2006, Consultant of Pol.i.s. Campania (Agency of the Campania Regional Government) for the organization of a Conference on Social capital and crime, held in Ottaviano (Naples).

• January 2006 - June 2006, Consultant of the University of Padua, Department of Economics “Marco Fanno”, within the research project on "Civil Economy and Microcredit".

• January 2006 - June 2006, Lecturer of Social Capital Theory at the Master in Non-Farm Activities and Rural Development in Developing Countries, University of Rome La Sapienza.

• January 2006 - June 2006, Consultant of the RESTRIM Project (Restructuring in Marginal Rural Areas: the role of social capital in rural development), a European Commission Framework Five funded project that examines the role of civil society in promoting economic competitiveness and quality of life for rural residents.

• March-May 2005, Lecturer of Social Capital Theory at the PhD Programme in Local Development Economics at the University of Cassino.

• June 2004 - May 2005 Consultant of the Research Group of the University of Rome La Sapienza, Faculty of Economics, on "A Plan of Services for Managing City", co-funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR).

• November 2002 - October 2004 Member of the Research Programme on “Growth and well-being”, Faculty of Economics, University of Rome La Sapienza.

• September 2001 - September 2004 Teaching assistant for the courses of Advanced Economic Policy, Introduction to Political Economy, and Monetary Economics at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Rome La Sapienza. Teaching assistant for the course of International Economic Policy at the Faculty of Economics of the University LUISS Guido Carli.

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Languages

English: fluent (written and spoken)

Econometric Skills

• Statistical and econometric Software: SPSS, SAS, MVSP, Spad, EViews, Lisrel.

• September 2004, XV Residential Course in Econometrics, "Dynamic Models and Forecasting", organised by the CIDE (Centro Interuniversitario di Econometria) at the University Residential Center of Bertinoro (Italy), University of Bologna, 19-25 September 2004.

• Course of Data Analysis with SAS organised by the CITICoRD (Centro Interateneo per le Tecnologie dell'Informazione e della Comunicazione nella Ricerca e nella Didattica) at the University of Rome "La Sapienza", 4-12 October 2004.

• Course of Data Analysis with SPSS organised by the CITICoRD (Centro Interateneo per le Tecnologie dell'Informazione e della Comunicazione nella Ricerca e nella Didattica) at the University of Rome "La Sapienza", 19-22 July 2004.

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Publications and manuscripts

Articles in peer-reviewed journals (published, accepted or forthcoming)

• Sabatini, Fabio (2009), "Social Capital as Social Networks: a New Framework for Measurement and an empirical analysis of its determinants and consequences", Journal of Socio-Economics, Vol. 38, Issue 3, 429-442.

• Sabatini, Fabio (2009), "The relationship between trust and networks. An exploratory empirical analysis'', Economics Bulletin, Vol. 29, Issue 2, 674-685.

• Sabatini, Fabio (2009), "Il capitale sociale nelle regioni italiane: un’analisi comparata", Rivista di Politica Economica, Vol. 2, 1-54.

• Sabatini, Fabio (2008), "Social Capital and the Quality of Economic Development", Kyklos, Vol. 61, Issue 3, 466-499.

• Sabatini, Fabio (2008), "Does Social Capital Improve Labour Productivity in Small and Medium Enterprises?", International Journal of Management and Decision Making, Special Issue on Social Capital and Organisations, Vol. 9, Issue 5, 454-480.

• Sabatini, Fabio (2007), "Capitale sociale, imprese sociali, spesa pubblica e sviluppo in Italia", Impresa sociale, special issue on "Fiducia, beni relazionali e capitale sociale", n.2, vol. 76, 192-234.

• Sabatini, Fabio (2007), "Un atlante del capitale sociale italiano", QA, Rivista dell'Associazione Rossi Doria, No. 1/2007, pp. 41-73.

• Sabatini, Fabio (2005), "Resources for the Study of Social Capital", Journal of Economic Education, Vol. 36, No. 2, Spring 2005, 198.

• Sabatini, Fabio (2004), "Il concetto di capitale sociale nelle scienze sociali. Una rassegna della letteratura economica, sociologica e politologica, Studi e Note di Economia, No. 2/2004, 73-105.

• Sabatini, Fabio (2003), Review Essay of Ben Fine, "Social Capital versus Social Theory: Political Economy and Social Science at the Turn of the Millenium", London and New York, Routledge, 2001, Economic Notes, vol. 32 issue 3, 403-408.

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Working Papers (under revision, submitted or revised and resubmitted)

• Sabatini, Fabio (2010), "Job Instability and family planning: insights from the Italian puzzle". University of Siena, Department of Economics Working Paper No. 584. Revise and resubmit to the Review of Economics of the Household.

• Sabatini, Fabio (2009), "Does Social Capital Create Trust? Evidence from a Community of Entrepreneurs", University of Siena, Quaderni del Dipartimento di Economia Politica, n. 552. Revise and resubmit to Sociological Research Online.

• Sabatini, Fabio (2010), "Bowling Alone but Tweetting Together: the Evolution of Human Interaction in the Social Networking Era". With Angelo Antoci and Mauro Sodini. Under revision. Request a draft by email.

• Sabatini, Fabio (2010), "See You on Facebook: how time pressure and social networking are going to change human interactions". With Angelo Antoci and Mauro Sodini. Paper presented at the Conference NET 2010 “Networks, Topology and Dynamics”, 14-16 giugno 2010. Under revision. Request a draft by email.

• Sabatini, Fabio (2010), "The Solaria Syndrome: Social Capital in a Hypertechnological Growing Economy". With Angelo Antoci and Mauro Sodini. Paper presented at the Conference “From GDP To Well-Being: Economics on the Road to Sustainability”, Ancona, 3-5 dicembre 2009. Submitted.

• Sabatini, Fabio (2009), "Will Growth and Technology Destroy Social Interaction? The Inverted-U Hypothesis". With Angelo Antoci and Mauro Sodini. University of Teramo, Department of Communication, Working Paper No 57, 2009. Submitted.

• Sabatini, Fabio (2009), "The Fragility of Social Capital". With Angelo Antoci and Mauro Sodini. University of Siena, Quaderni del Dipartimento di Economia Politica, n. 551. Paper presented at the conferences "The formation and the evolution of social networks", organized by Agence Nationale de la Recherche, Paris, France, June, 25-27th 2009 and "Social Economy: Young Economists' contribution", organized by the University of Bologna, Forlì, June, 19-20th 2009.

Please check my profile on Ideas for a complete list of my working papers.

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Books

• Sabatini, Fabio, (ed) (2008), Homo Oeconomicus? Dinamiche imprenditoriali in laboratorio, with Giuseppe Garofalo, Bologna, Il Mulino.

• Sabatini, Fabio (2008), Campagne in sviluppo. Capitale sociale e comunità rurali in Europa, with Claudio Cecchi and Stefano Grando, Torino, Rosenberg & Sellier.

• Sabatini, Fabio (2007), Il capitale sociale per la pianificazione e gestione dei servizi pubblici locali, joint with Claudio Cecchi, Roma, Officina Edizioni.

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Book Chapters

• Sabatini, Fabio (2010), "Capitale sociale", lemma in the Garzanti Encyclopedia of Economics (in Italian). In press.

• Sabatini, Fabio (2009), "The Labour Market", in Svendsen, G.T. and G.L.H. Svendsen (eds), Handbook of Social Capital. The Troika of Sociology, Political Science and Economics, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA.

• Sabatini, Fabio (2008), "Is Social Capital a Policy Tool Against Poverty and Inequality? A Discussion of Development Strategies in Rural India", with Claudio Cecchi and Luca Molinas, in Basile, E. and I. Mukhopadhyay (eds), Institutional Perspectives on Rural India, London, New York, Delhi, Anthem Press.

• Sabatini, Fabio (2008), "Capitale sociale, imprese sociali, spesa pubblica", in Pelligra, V. (ed), Imprese sociali. Scelte individuali e interessi comuni, Milano, Paravia Bruno Mondadori.

• Sabatini, Fabio (2008), "Capitale sociale, fiducia e crescita economica", in Garofalo, G. e F. Sabatini (a cura di), Homo Oeconomicus? Dinamiche imprenditoriali in laboratorio, Bologna, Il Mulino.

• Sabatini, Fabio (2008), "Misurare il capitale sociale ", in Garofalo, G. e F. Sabatini (a cura di), Homo Oeconomicus? Dinamiche imprenditoriali in laboratorio, Bologna, Il Mulino.

• Sabatini, Fabio (2008), "Guida pratica alla misurazione del capitale sociale ", in Garofalo, G. e F. Sabatini (a cura di), Homo Oeconomicus? Dinamiche imprenditoriali in laboratorio, Bologna, Il Mulino.

• Sabatini, Fabio (2008), "Capitale sociale e fiducia: un'analisi econometrica ", in Garofalo, G. e F. Sabatini (a cura di), Homo Oeconomicus? Dinamiche imprenditoriali in laboratorio, Bologna. Download a preliminary version from Ideas (in Italian).

• Sabatini, Fabio (2007), "The Empirics of Social Capital and Economic Development: a Critical Perspective", in Osborne, M., Sankey, K. e Wilson, B. (eds), Social Capital, Lifelong Learning Regions and the Management of Place: an international perspective, London and New York, Routledge, pp76-94.

• Sabatini, Fabio (2007), "Il decentramento delle politiche sociali in Italia. Il contesto normativo e istituzionale del nuovo sistema di welfare locale", in Cecchi, C. and F. Sabatini, Il capitale sociale per la pianificazione e gestione dei servizi pubblici locali, Roma, Officina Edizioni.

• Sabatini, Fabio (2007), "Il capitale sociale e la risposta collettiva ai bisogni individiduali", in Cecchi, C. and F. Sabatini, Il capitale sociale per la pianificazione e gestione dei servizi pubblici locali, Roma, Officina Edizioni.

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PhD Thesis

Sabatini, Fabio (2005), An Inquiry into the Empirics of Social Capital and Economic Development, PhD Programme in Economics, University of Rome La Sapienza, June 2006.

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Articles in non-refereed journals

• Sabatini, Fabio (2005), "Uganda: l'allievo modello della Banca Mondiale? Le nuove contraddizioni della cooperazione allo sviluppo", Disuguaglianze, Trimestrale per l'analisi dei processi di sviluppo e sottosviluppo, Vol. 5/05, 122-134.

• Sabatini, Fabio (2004), "Che cosa è il capitale sociale", Disuguaglianze, Trimestrale per l'analisi dei processi di sviluppo e sottosviluppo, Vol. 3/04, 41-55.

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Presentations at conferences

• 2010, July, invited speaker at the conference “The Economic Effects of Trust”, organized by the Fundaciòn Confianza and the Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo, Santander, 7-8 July 2010.

• 2010, June, member of the scientific committee of the Young Economists annual conference organized by the University of Bologna, Forlì, 11-12 June 2010.

• 2010, March, invited speaker at the workshop “Poverty, inequality and social protection in Africa”, organized by the European Commission, Brussels, 12 March 2010.

• 2009, December, member of the scientific committee of the Conference "From GDP to Well-Being: Economics on the Road to Sustainability", organized by the University of Ancona, Ancona, 3-5 december 2009.

• 2009, December, presentation of the paper "The Solaria Syndrome: Social Capital in a Growing Hypertechnological Economy" at the Conference "From GDP to Well-Being: Economics on the Road to Sustainability", organized by the University of Ancona, Ancona, 3-5 december 2009.

• 2009, September, invited speaker at the Conference "Urban Policies and Social Capital", organized by Dynamic Growth Capital and the Social Capital Foundation, Lindköping and Gothenburg, Sweden, 24-26 September 2009.

• 2009, September, presentation of the paper "Social capital and economic development in Italy" at the Conference "Civil society, social capital and economic development", organized by the Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden) and the Jönköping International Business School, Stockholm, Sweden, 3-4 September 2009.

• 2009, June, member of the scientific committee of the Young Economists annual conference organized by the University of Bologna, Forlì, 12-13 June 2009.

• 2009, June, invited speaker at the Conference "Reti sociali, partecipazione sociale organizzata e sviluppo del volontariato", organized by the University of Pisa, Pisa, 12-13 June 2009.

• 2009, May, invited speaker at the Workshop "Capitale sociale e responsabilità sociale d’impresa", organized by EconomEtica and the University of Milano Bicocca, Milan, 11 May 2009.

• 2008, December, Keynote invited speaker at the conference "Capitale sociale e stili di leadership nel terzo settore", organized by the University of Bologna, Forlì 12 December 2008.

• 2007, November, "Social capital and the quality of economic development", Paper presentation at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Verona.

• 2007, June, invited speaker at the conference "The role of nonprofit organizations and social enterprises in the formation of social capital" hosted by the Second Festival of Economics "Human capital, social capital" in Trento, 1st June 2007.

• 2007, June: "Social capital and economic development: the case of Italy ", Paper presentation at the Third Workshop on Civil Economy "Culture, Social Capital and Capabilities" organized by the University of Bologna and the AICCON Research Centre. 8-9 June 2007.

• 2007, March, invited speaker at the Conference "Social Networks, Transactional Economy, and Knowledge-Based Economy in Regional Development" hosted by the International Forum "Regional Development Policies as Vehicle of Reshaping Global Political and Economic Order" organized by the State University of Moscow, the MGIMO University of Moscow and the Higher School of Management of Moscow, Moscow, 4 March 2007.

• 2007, March, Chair of the Roundtable "Energy Policy, Regional Development and Transcontinental Interactions of Europe" within the International Forum "Regional Development Policies as Vehicle of Reshaping Global Political and Economic Order" organized by the State University of Moscow, the MGIMO University of Moscow and the Higher School of Management of Moscow, Moscow, 4 March 2007.

• 2006, November, invited speaker at the Conference "Reviewing OECD experience in the social enterprise sector" organised by the OECD LEED Centre for Local Development and the World Bank, Trento, 15-18 November 2006.

• 2006, October, Organizer and Chair of the Conference "Social Capital and Crime", hosted by Pol.i.s. Campania and the Campania regional government, Ottaviano (Naples), 18-19 October 2006.

• 2006, June, The Role of Social Capital in Economic Development. Investigating the Causal Nexus through Structural Equations Models, Paper presentation at the Conference Social Capital, Sustainability and Socio-economic Cohesion within the EU MLG structure in development policy, hosted by the London School of Economics, London, June 29 & 30, 2006.

• 2006, April, "Social Capital: Definition and Measurement", Research seminar held at the IRPET (Istituto Regionale per la Programmazione Economica della Toscana), Florence, Italy, 20 April 2006.

• 2006, January, "Nonprofit and social capital", Paper presentation at the Workshop "Nonprofit organizations and the creation of social capital" organized by the University of Padua, 28 January.

• 2005, October, Social Capital as Social Networks. A New Framework for Measurement, Paper presentation at the Third Forum for young researcheres organized by the Italian Sociological Association, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, 6 october 2005.

• 2005, 11 June, "Measuring social capital in Italy: an exploratory analysis", Paper presentation at the Second Workshop on Civil Economy: young economists' contributions, 10-11 June 2005, organized by the University of Bologna, Faculty of Economics in Forlì.

• 2004, 2 December, "Uganda, l'allievo modello della Banca Mondiale? Le nuove contraddizioni della cooperazione allo sviluppo", Paper presentation at the Conference The Meanings of research: interdisciplinary character and border line themes in Population Studies, organized by the Department of Demography of the University of Rome La Sapienza, Rome, 1-3 December, 2004.

• 2004, 1 June, "Analisi economica, relazioni sociali e capitale sociale", Paper presentation at the at the first CRISS First Annual Young Economists Workshop, organized by the Network on the Economics of the Welfare State at the University of Rome "La Sapienza", Faculty of Economics, 31 May, 1 June.

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Social Capital Website

Fabio Sabatini is the author and the editor of Social Capital Gateway, web site providing resources for the study of social capital and social interactions which has been acknowledged by the Journal of Economic Education as an exemplary material for teaching and learning economics. Social Capital Gateway is linked as a useful resource for social sciences by hundreds of research institutions all over the world, among which the World Bank, Harvard University, Princeton University, and the London School of Economics.

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Works in progress

Comments are most welcome and collaboration proposals will be taken into consideration. Please email me for furhter details and the long abstracts of my ongoing projects.

• Social capital and health.
An empirical investigation into the socio-economic determinants of health in Italy, based on longitudinal data drawn from the Istat’s Multipurpose Survey (see the attached file for further details on the available variables). The main goal of the paper is to verify the claim first advanced in a seminal paper by Kawachi and Kennedy (1997) that social networks (identified by the author as the “structural” dimension of social capital) and cohesion (the “cognitive” dimension) may affect both actual and perceived health.

• Job instability and family planning.
An empirical investigation into the socio-economic determinants of couples’ childbearing decisions in Italy. Our results from a first exploratory assessment on a section of data drawn from the SHIW carried out by the Bank of Italy do not support established theoretical predictions according to which the increase in the opportunity cost of motherhood connected to higher female labour participation is responsible for the fall in fertility. On the contrary, the instability of the women’s work status (i.e. their being occasional, precarious, and low-paid workers) reveals to be a significant dissuasive deterrent discouraging the decision to have children. Couples with unemployed women are less likely to plan childbearing as well. Other relevant explanatory variables are current family size and the strength of family ties. The next step in the analysis is to perform the empirical investigation again on a complex dataset obtained through a statistical matching between the Bank of Italy’s SHIW and the Istat’s Multipurpose Survey.

• Job instability and life-satisfaction in Italy.
A two-steps empirical analysis on the relationship between job instability and life-satisfaction in Italy. The first step consists on a series of probit analyses on a section of data drawn from the Survey on Household’s Income and Wealth (SHIW) and a set of territorial variables. The second step will be based on a dataset obtained through the statistical matching between the SHIW and the Istat’s Multipurpose Survey.

• Homophobia and economic growth.
One of the main factors supporting innovation is the possibility of individuals to fully exploit their own talent and creativity in order to contribute to a never-ending process of modernization and change of the economy. The mechanism connecting individual talent with innovation and change can work if and only if the social context fully accepts and stimulates freedom of expression and choice. Think for example of an imaginary country preventing women from expressing themselves, participating to social life, and integrating in the labour market. Besides any ideological and moral consideration, such a country will be doomed to manage without the talent of women (i.e. half of its population). The same holds about homophobic countries. If people are ostracized for their sexual preferences, they will not be able to fully exploit their potential, and to enrich the economy with their wealth of ideas, talent, and creativity. Homophobia – as well as sexism in general and racism – is thus not only a matter of culture, ideology, or religion. It is also about innovation, competitiveness, and economic growth.
Based on panel data drawn from the General Social Survey (GSS), this paper aims to carry out an assessment of the relationship between homophobia and economic growth in the United States.

• The determinants of entrepreneurship in Italy.
The aim of this paper is to carry out an in-depth empirical analysis into the socio-economic determinants of entrepreneurship in Italy. The analysis consists in two parts relying on different data sources: a) primary data collected on the field through the submission of a questionnaire to a representative sample of the population of the Italian province of Trento. This research work is part of the broader project “The role of the cooperative sector in the creation of social capital”, coordinated by Fabio Sabatini on behalf of the European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises (Euricse). b) Data drawn from the SHIW carried out by the Bank of Italy.

• Public policies, social capital and well-being, a cross-country investigation.
This work relies on various data sources, amongh which EURLife, Eurobarometer, EVS and WVS, to carry out a comparative analysis of the role of institutions, public policies, and social capital in shaping and improving the quality of life and economic development, with the following final goals: 1) mapping the features and orientation of the public policies carried out the enlarged EU and in other fast growing and emerging economies, with a particular focus social and environmental protection, labour market policies, social cohesion policies. 2) Mapping the structure and the level of social capital in the sample countries under consideration. 3) Clarifying and possibly rethinking the boundaries of the Social Europes originally depicted by the sociological literature. 4) Carrying out an in-depth analysis of the mutual relationships connecting social capital, public policy and the quality of economic development in such countries. 5) Designing public policies targeted at improving the quality of economic development, and fostering cultural and social cohesion within countries and across countries (possibly with a special focus on cohesion between old and new EU member countries).

• Internet and social capital: an empirical analysis.
An empirical analysis on the effects of web-mediated interaction on social interaction and trust. The dataset should be the result of a statistical matching between the last wave of the GSS and one of the Pew Internet & American Life Project surveys.

• Internet and social capital: a theoretical analysis (with Angelo Antoci, University of Sassari and Mauro Sodini, University of Pisa).
A theoretical evolutionary analysis of how human interaction will “evolve” in a world characterized by the explosion of online networking and other Web-mediated ways of building relationships (two papers under revision).

• The determinants and consequences of obesity (with Roberta De Santis, Institute of Economic Studies and Analyses).
An empirical analysis on the socio-economic determinants and consequences of obesity, with a particular focus on the role of social relations and life-satisfaction. The data source is the Istat’s Multipurpose Survey, possibly matched with the Bank of Italy’s SHIW.

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