Job Market Paper
"Self-Regulation of Social Media and the Evolution of Content: a Cross-Platform Analysis"
Received the Distinguished CESifo Affiliate Award, and the Premio Gobbo Special Mention (SIEPI)
Abstract: This paper investigates the effectiveness of Twitter’s policy against racist hate speech, introduced in December 2020, in reducing abusive content. Using a dataset of 8 million tweets from users discussing race-related topics, and machine learning techniques to identify instances of hate speech and racist hate speech, I find a significant reduction in abusive content in Twitter, especially from racist users, after the policy's implementation. Additionally, using a dataset of users with accounts on both Twitter and Parler, a less regulated social media platform, I examine whether abusive behavior shifted to Parler following the policy change. Findings suggest an overall increase in hate speech on Parler post-policy, in particular for users that were active in Twitter in those months. Text analysis methods indicate a possible shift in topics between the twoplatforms. These results highlight the complexity of online content regulation and the potential for spillover effects to alternative platforms.
Working Papers
"Choosing the Right Words: the Effects of Trump's Communication during the Pandemic"
Abstract: In the first stages of the pandemic, how governments communicated information about Covid-19 impacted on preventive measures taken by people, especially in periods when stay-at-home orders were not implemented. My research focuses on the political communication of former President Donald Trump in the US, in the first period of the onset of the pandemic. On February 28th, Donald Trump stated that Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus, and he referred to it as their “new hoax”. I analyze how these statements affected the online political debate, and how they impacted the propensity to stay at home. I find that Democrats talk relatively more about coronavirus after Trump’s statements. In addition, I find that Trump’s statements decrease the propensity to stay at home by around 4% in Republican counties. Overall, my results point to an effect of Trump’s statements both on the political debate and on individual behaviors.
"Party's Friends: the Effect of Political Alignment on Municipal Policies" (joint with A. Manello and S. Mendolia)
Abstract: This paper investigates the impact of political alignment on the allocation of municipal funds and budget choices, specifically exploring how a mayor’s alignment with Regional Governors influences these financial aspects. We analyze the budget choices of aligned and misaligned mayors in Italy from 2000-2021. We use a Regression Discontinuity Design on mixed runoff elections between an aligned and a misaligned mayor for municipalities with more than 15,000 inhabitants. Municipalities led by aligned mayors demonstrate reduced current revenues and diminished per capita current expenditure one year following their election. Furthermore, these municipalities receive lower Regional transfers per inhabitant. We interpret these results with two different explanations: lower per capita revenues and expenditures can be driven by the disciplinary effect of the Regional governors, similar to what Gamalerio (2020) found for national parties and civic lists. On the other hand, lower Regional trans- fers can be driven by strategic considerations, investing more in non-affiliated municipalities, in order to gain votes for the next elections. Overall, our paper points out an impact on budget management due to being aligned with the Regional governors.
Selected Work in Progress
- Extreme Events, Media, and Political Polarization (joint with Pierluigi Conzo)
- Climate Narratives and Individual Attitudes (joint with Pierluigi Conzo, Francesco Passarelli and Marina Di Giacomo)
- Ads Targeting and Electoral Outcomes (joint with Gianmarco De Francisci Morales and Corrado Monti)
- Women Agency Metrics from Open-Ended Questions (joint with Maria Hernandez De Benito and Clare Clingain)