WIIW The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies - Wiener Institut für Internationale Wirtschaftsvergleiche

Francesca Micocci is a postdoctoral researcher in economics at Roma Tre University. She was previously a research collaborator at the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw). She holds a PhD from the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, during which she was also a visiting scholar at the Centre d’Études Prospectives et d’Informations Internationales (CEPII) in Paris. Her research interests lie at the intersection of econometrics and machine learning, with a focus on both methodological innovation and empirical applications. While her earlier work primarily addressed topics in international economics, she is increasingly involved in the study of public policies through modern machine learning techniques. Her recent work investigates the heterogeneous effects of trade agreements using causal machine learning, as well as the role of local implementation capacity in shaping project performance under the EU Cohesion Policy.

Mahdi Ghodsi is Economist at wiiw where he leads the International Economic research group, with extensive experience in applied econometrics, macroeconomic modelling, and data science, with a particular focus on global markets, trade policy, trade regulations, financial and labour market analysis, migration policy, economics of sanctions, and Iran's economy. He is skilled in leading research projects, developing economic strategies, and providing data-driven insights into economic trends. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore - Sede di Milano and a second Ph.D. in international economics from the Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw. He teaches as an external lecturer at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU), and he is a Senior Fellow and Head of Economy Unit at Center for Middle East and Global Order (CEMG) in Berlin.

Chiara Castelli is Economist at wiiw and PhD candidate in Economics at the WU (Vienna University of Economics and Business). Her research focuses on foreign direct investment, multinational firms, innovation and environmental policies. She holds a master’s degree in Economics from the University of Pisa and Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (2020). Previously, she worked as an economic researcher in several institutions, including the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, the University of Brescia (Italy) and the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM, Italy).