Position/Role

Senior Advisor at the DG Economics and Statistics of the Bank of Italy, Head of the Production Structure Sector and Enterprises of the Economic Structure and Labor Market Division. Contract Professor of Industrial Dynamics and Labor Economics at the Department of Economics and Management of the Free International University of Social Studies (LUISS).

Professional career

After graduating in Statistical and Economic Sciences at the University of Bologna in 1997, she continued her education with a PhDs in Economics at the Sant'Anna Superiore University School (Pisa), during which she was a visiting student at the Department of economics of Harvard University (US) and visiting fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER, US). Assumed at the Research Department of the Bank of Italy in 2002, she first served the Credit Intermediaries Office, then the Sectoral and Territorial Analysis Office, later merged into the Division of Economic Structure and Labor Market. In 2007-2008 she was a visiting scholar at Harvard University and in 2008-2009 a consultant for the Ministry of Economic Development for industrial policies and related assessment.

Scientific results

Francesca Lotti's research activity is mainly carried out in the field of industrial economics and applied economics, with particular attention to technological change, the choices of companies in terms of growth, investments and innovation, the dynamics of productivity and its determinants. In these areas, she also investigated economic policies and the related ex-post evaluation, a topic on which she also wrote a book published by Il Mulino ("The evaluation of aid to businesses", edited by G. De Blasio, Il Mulino, 2008). Another area of her research concerns the role of women in the economy, with contributions on gender discrimination in the credit market, on gender differences in business management and more generally in the labor market.

Editorial work and publications

Francesca Lotti is a member of the Advisory Board of the Journal of Industrial and Business Economics. She is the author of numerous publications, including:

(2017) Lotti F, Marin G. Productivity Effects of Eco-innovations Using Data on Eco-patents. Industrial and Corporate Change, 26(1):125–148.

(2013) Alesina A, Lotti F, Mistrulli PE. Do Women Pay More for Credit? Evidence from Italy, in Journal of the European Economic Association,  11(s1):45-66.

(2013) Hall BH, Lotti F e Mairesse J. Evidence on the Impact of R&D and ICT Investment on Innovation and Productivity in Italian Firms. Economics of Innovation and New Technology, 22(3):300-328.

(2009) Hall BH, Lotti F e Mairesse J. Innovation and Productivity in SMEs. Empirical Evidence for Italy. Small Business Economics, 33(1):13-33.

(2008) Hall BH, Lotti F e Mairesse J. Employment, Innovation and Productivity: Evidence from Italian Manufacturing Microdata. Industrial and Corporate Change, 17(4):813-839.

(2007) Lotti F. Firm Dynamics in Manufacturing and Services: a Broken Mirror? Industrial and Corporate Change, 16(3):347-369.

(2007) Lotti F, Marcucci J. Revisiting the Empirical Evidence on Firms' Money Demand, Journal of Economics and Business, 59(1):51-73.

(2006) Bofondi M, Lotti F. Innovation in the Retail Banking Industry: the Diffusion of Credit Scoring Review of Industrial Organization, 28(4):343-358.

(2005)  Lotti F, Santarelli E. The Survival of Family Firms: The Importance of Control and Family Ties, International Journal of the Economics of Business, 12(2), pp. 183-192.

(2004) Gobbi G, Lotti F. Entry Decisions and Adverse Selection: an Empirical Analysis of Local Credit Markets, Journal of Financial Services Research, 26(3):225-244.

(2004) Lotti F, Santarelli E. Industry Dynamics and the Distribution of Firm Sizes: A Non Parametric Approach, Southern Economic Journal, 70(3):443-466.

(2003) Lotti F, Santarelli E, Vivarelli M. Does Gibrat's Law Hold in the Case of Young, Small Firms?, Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 13:213-235.

Awards and prizes

Francesca Lotti is top 5% of women economists worldwide According to the Repec ranking. Qualified as first level professor in Economic Policy (SECS-P02), Applied Economics (SECS-P04) and Economic Statistics (SECS-S03), she is external reviewer for the VQR (Evaluation for Research Quality) 2011-2014 (GEV 13) of the ANVUR (the National Agency for the Evaluation of the University and Research System).