Peer-Reviewed Publications
“Networks Paving the Way: Apprenticeship, Guilds, and Access to Mastership in Early Modern Genoa”. Economic History Review (forthcoming). [WP November 2025]
“The Determinants of the Skill Premium in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, 1400-1800” (with Mattia Fochesato). European Review of Economic History, vol. 29, no. 4 (2025), pp. 534-557.
Working Papers & Research in Progress
- “Saint Roch Playing Favourites? Plague, Skill, and Wage Inequality in Early Modern Venice”
Work in progress
[Abstract]
This paper examines how the 1629-31 plague in Venice reshaped apprenticeship wages, providing new micro-level evidence on labour-market adjustment to severe demographic shocks. Drawing on more than 16,000 apprenticeship contracts, I reconstruct real remuneration, including both cash and in-kind components, and compare wage trajectories across skilled and unskilled trades before and after the epidemic. Using a difference-in-differences design, I show that, although real wages rose after the epidemic, the increase was substantially larger in skill-intensive trades, raising the post-plague skill premium by approximately 10-12 per cent. This asymmetry reflects heterogeneous demand conditions: capital-intensive, export-oriented trades faced lower labour demand contractions and stronger capital-skill complementarities, amplifying pre-existing differentials during a period of acute demographic stress. My findings therefore suggest that, contrary to the equalising effects often attributed to the Black Death, the 1629-31 plague reinforced wage differentials and deepened labour market stratification in early modern Venice.
“By the Roll of a Die: Public Functions and Private Wealth in Pre-Modern Europe” (with Erich Battistin and Mattia Fochesato)
Work in progress- “Four Centuries of Pandemics and Wealth Inequality: Evidence From Northern Italy” (with Guido Alfani)
Work in progress