After graduation in International Economicsat the University of Bologna, in 1995 he received his PhD in Economicsfrom theUniversity of Pennsylvania. In 2009 he hasbeenappointedas full professor of Economics in the Economics Department of the University of Bologna. Since 2015, heisHead of the Department.

He hasbeenVisiting Professor atthe Ecole Normale Superieure de Cachan, UniversitéCergy-Pontoise, Collegio Carlo Alberto, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology,and Université d’Evry. He is Research Fellow of the Center for Economic Studies and the Ifo Institute for Economic Research (CESifo) in Munich. His main research areas are political economy, economic growth,and internationalmacroeconomics. He has published several articles in leadinginternationaljournals,suchasEconomica,EuropeanEconomic Review,European Journal of Political Economy,Journal of the EuropeanEconomicAssociation,Review of Economic Dynamics, and Review of Economic Studies.