Alessandra Casella

Alessandra Casella is an economist, researcher, professor, and author. Currently, she is an Economic and Political Science professor at Columbia University.

Alessandra Casella
EmployerColumbia University
Known forEconomic and Political Science professor

Life

Casella received her bachelor's degree with a summa cum laude in Economics and Social Sciences from Bocconi University, Milan, in March 1983. She furthered her studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she received her Masters and Ph.D. in Economics, 1988. Her thesis' focused on hyperinflation and the real exchange rates and supply shocks in the economy. After graduating, Casella's research continues to focus on Economics, with more specific interests in public economics, experimental economics, and political economy.[1]

In 2019, Casella was the director of the Columbia Laboratory for the Social Sciences,[2] and a fellow in both the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge and the British Center for Economic Policy Research. She is the author of two books: Networks and Markets. Contributions from Economics and Sociology and Storable Votes: Protecting the Minority Voice.[1]

Career

Academic

Alessandra Casella started her teaching career at UC Berkeley as an assistant professor from 1987 to 1993. From 1996 to 2010, she was the part-time Director of Studies at Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Sciences Sociales (EHESS) based in Paris, France. In the time between her career in UC Berkeley and Director in EHESS, Casella became an associate Professor of Economics at Columbia University, New York, from 1993 till 1997. Her career with Columbia University continued where she eventually became a Professor of Economics at Columbia University in 1997 until current. Since then, Casella has taught Ph.D. courses in Experimental Methods in Political Economy and Special Topics in Political Economics. She has also taught undergraduate classes in Political Economy and Experimental Economics. Since 2017, Casella has also become a Professor of Political Science at Columbia University.[1]

Journals

Others

Fellowships

Selected grants

Alessandra Casella has received several research grants throughout her career. Casella received her first grant with her colleague James Rauch for research on "Anonymous Market and Coethnic Ties in International Trade." The National Science Foundation gave the grant from 1997 - 2001 (Grant No. SBR-9709237). From 2002 - 2005, the National Science Foundation gave her another grant for research in "Storable Votes" (Grant No. SES-0214013). From 2006 - 2012, Casella continued to work with the National Science Foundation and received a supplementary grant to continue research on "Storable Votes, Part II" (Grant No. SES-0617934). In March 2018, Casella received a seed grant on "Strategic Focus in Games: An Experiment" from the ISERP, Columbia University.[3]

Selected scholarships

"A Property Rights Approach to Temporary Work Visas" (2018)

Working with her colleague Adam B. Cox, Casella creates a model that would address the problems that the temporary labor visa has in the United States. The three main concerns are: inefficient visa allocation, inability to protect domestic workers, and exploitation of migrant workers. The model focuses on reconfiguring the property rights by allocating a fixed number of temporary labor visas each year to maximize social surplus. Additional benefits that come with the model are minimized negative impact and exploitation of domestic and migrant workers. The goal of the proposed model would be creating a market with increased domestic employment, gains for both the government and foreign workers, and mitigated cost to firms through efficient labor allocation. To achieve this goal, Casella focuses on unbundling multiple property rights and redistributing them through market mechanisms that could counter the three main concerns of the current U.S. temporary labor visa rules.[4]

"Communication in context: Interpreting promises in an experiment on competition and trust" (2017)

In this paper, Alessandra Casella and her colleagues, Navin Kartika, Luis Sancheza, and Sébastien Turbana, study people's tendencies to lie and the amount of trust that is associated in communication when lying is an option. Casella takes a closer look at understanding the way communication is interpreted by creating a trust game experiment. The study, approved by Columbia University and New York University Institutional Review Boards, was done online and in the laboratory via Amazon's Mechanical Turk. The participants for the experiment were students enrolled at New York University. The game consisted of a sender and a receiver where the sender decides how to split $10. The study found that the senders are affected by competition, leading to higher offers. However, the findings show no effect on the expected transfer, the transfer itself, nor the receiver. Nonetheless, the results of the study showed that competition does alter communication understanding between participants.[5]

"Democracy Undone. Systematic Minority Advantage in Competitive Vote Markets" (2014)

Alessandra Casella worked with Sébastien Turban to study the competitive equilibrium of the voting market. In this market, before making a decision, voters can trade their vote in for numeraire. In elections where majority wins, it is known that the voters are treated equally with symmetrical options, which leads to sincere voting. However, this voting method does not take into account the intensity of voters’ preferences. Without knowing the intensity of the vote, it is difficult to maximize the utilitarian welfare. This research aims to resolve this issue by creating a market for votes. The idea of this research is to apply the concept of efficient goods allocation in the market to the voting market. If goods are allocated to individuals who value them the most, the same logic applied to votes will maximize utilitarian welfare. Casella and Turban study the conditions required to create an equilibrium in the voting market before the voting itself takes place.[6]

"Why Personal Ties Cannot Be Bought" (2006)

Alessandra Casella and Nobuyuki Hanak study the debate economists and sociologists have about whether social networks can be artificially created. Information and trust between personal networks are a vital part of job applications, creating new capital, and moving. Especially when dealing with business, having personal ties can further economic success. Economists often believe that appropriate market mechanisms and policies can replace the lack of personal relations. On the other hand, Sociologists do often think that it is a personal relationship that develops naturally and, therefore, cannot be artificially replicated. The method of research was by borrowing James D. Montgomery's (1991) elegant model of the network. The results found that there were two types of networks: costless network and costly network. The costless network is personal referrals, which is often preferred for hiring because it requires less effort. However, the costly network is when people intentionally create personal connections, which can become a costly activity.[7]

Academic publications
    Journal publications [3][8]
    Year Title Publication Author(s)
    1984 Elasticita' di Sostituzione tra Energia, Capitale e Lavoro nel Settore Manifatturiero Italiano 1960-1978 Giornale degli Economisti, XLIII, 491–505. Alessandra Casella
    1989 Integracion Monetaria Europea y la Economia de la Sostitucion de Monedas Informacion Comercial Espanola, November, 47–50. Alessandra Casella
    1989 Testing for Rational Bubbles with Exogenous or Endogenous Fundamentals: the German Hyperinflation Once More Journal of Monetary Economics, 24,109-122. Alessandra Casella
    1990 Economic Exchange during Hyperinflation Journal of Political Economy, 98, 1-27. Alessandra Casella & Jonathan Feinstein
    1992 Federalism and Clubs. Towards an Economic Theory of Overlapping Political Jurisdictions European Economic Review, 36, 639–646. Alessandra Casella & Bruno Frey
    1992 A Note on Bargaining and Inflation Economic Letters, 38, 393–398. Alessandra Casella & Jonathan Feinstein
    1992 On Markets and Clubs.  Economic and Political Integration of Regions with Unequal Productivity American Economic Review, 82, 115–121. Alessandra Casella
    1992 Participation in a Currency Union American Economic Review, 82, 847–863. Alessandra Casella
    1994 Trade as Engine of Political Change. A Parable Economica, 61, 267–284. Alessandra Casella
    1996 On Market Integration and the Development of Institutions.  The Case of International Commercial Arbitration European Economic Review, 40, 155–186.  (Reprinted in O. C. Ashenfelter and R. K. Iyengar (eds.), 2009, Economics of Commercial Arbitration and Dispute Resolution, Edward Elgar Publishing). Alessandra Casella
    1996 Large Countries, Small Countries and the Enlargement of Trade Blocs European Economic Review, 40, 389–415. Alessandra Casella
    1996 Can Foreign Aid Accelerate Stabilization? The Economic Journal, 106, 605–619. Alessandra Casella & Barry Eichengreen
    1999 Tradable Deficit Permits.  Efficient Implementation of the Stability Pact in the European Monetary Union Economic Policy, 29, 323–361. (Reprinted in Brunila, A., Buti, M. and D. Franco (eds.), 2001, The Stability and Growth Pact, Palgrave: London, 394–413.). Alessandra Casella
    2001 Product Standards and International Trade. Harmonization through Private Coalitions? Kyklos, 54, 243–264. (Reprinted in Henson, S. and J.S. Wilson (eds.), 2005, The WTO and Technical Barriers to Trade, Edward Elgar Publishing: Cheltenham, U.K., 494–515.) Alessandra Casella
    2001 The Role of Market Size in the Formation of Jurisdictions The Review of Economic Studies, 68, 83-108. Alessandra Casella
    2001 Market Mechanisms for Policy Decisions. Tools for the European Union European Economic Review, 45, 995–1006. Alessandra Casella
    2002 Public Goods in Trade: On the Formation of Markets and Jurisdictions International Economic Review, 43, 437–462. Alessandra Casella & Jonathan Feinstein
    2002 Anonymous Market and Group Ties in International Trade Journal of International Economics, 58, 19–47.

    (Reprinted in Falvey, R. E. and U. Kreickemeier, (eds.), 2005, Recent Developments in International Trade Theory, Edward Elgar Publishing: Cheltenham, U.K.)

    		 Alessandra Casella & James Rauch
    2003 Overcoming Informational Barriers in International Resource Allocations: Prices and Ties The Economic Journal, 113, 21–42. Alessandra Casella & James Rauch
    2005 Storable Votes Games and Economic Behavior, 51, 391–419. Alessandra Casella
    2005 Redistribution Policy: A European Model Journal of Public Economics, 89, 1305–1331. Alessandra Casella
    2006 Why Personal Ties Cannot Be Bought American Economic Review, 96, 2, 261–264. Alessandra Casella & Nobuyuki Hanaki
    2006 An Experimental Study of Storable Votes Games and Economic Behavior, 57, 123–154. Alessandra Casella, Andrew Gelman, & Thomas Palfrey
    2007 Storable Votes: Protecting Minorities without Sacrificing Efficiency CESifo DICE Report, 5, 3, 17–22. Alessandra Casella, Thomas Palfrey, & Raymond Riezman
    2008 Information Channels in Labor Markets. On the Resilience of Referral Hiring Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 66, 492–513. Alessandra Casella & Nobuyuki Hanaki
    2008 A Simple Scheme to Improve the Efficiency of Referenda Journal of Public Economics, 92: 2240–2261. Alessandra Casella & Andrew Gelman
    2008 Minorities and Storable Votes Quarterly Journal of Political Science, 3: 165–200. Alessandra Casella, Thomas Palfrey, & Raymond Riezman
    2010 Protecting Minorities in Large Binary Elections. A Test of Storable Votes Using Field Data The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy (Advances), Vol. 10: Iss. 1.   Alessandra Casella, Shuky Ehrenberg, Andrew Gelman, & Jie Shen
    2011 Agenda Control as a Cheap Talk Game. Theory and Experiments with Storable Votes Games and Economic Behavior, 72: 46–76. Alessandra Casella
    2012 Competitive Equilibrium in Markets for Votes Journal of Political Economy, 120: 593–658. Alessandra Casella, Aniol Llorente-Saguer & Thomas Palfrey
    2014 Vote Trading with and without Party Leaders Journal of Public Economics, 112:115-128. Alessandra Casella, Thomas Palfrey, & Sebastien Turban
    2014 Democracy Undone. Systematic Minority Advantage in Competitive Vote Markets Games and Economic Behavior, 88: 47–70. Alessandra Casella & Sebastien Turban
    2017 Storable Votes and Judicial Nominations in the U.S. Senate Journal of Theoretical Politics, 29: 243–272. Alessandra Casella, Sébastien Turban, & Gregory Wawro
    2017 Democracy for Polarized Committees. The Tale of Blotto’s Lieutenants Games and Economic Behavior, 106, 239–259. Alessandra Casella, Jean-Francois Laslier, & Antonin Macé
    2018 Communication in Context: Interpreting Promises in an Experiment on Competition and Trust PNAS, 115 (5) 933–938. Alessandra Casella, Navin Kartik, Luis Sanchez, & Sébastien Turban
    2018 A Property Rights Approach to Temporary Work Visas Journal of Legal Studies, 47 (S1), S195-S227. Alessandra Casella & Adam Cox

    Working papers
    • “Trading Votes for Votes. An Experiment” (with Thomas Palfrey), May 2017
    • “Storable Votes and Quadratic Voting. An Experiment on Four California Propositions” (with Luis Sanchez), in progress.[1]

    Books
    • Storable Votes: Protecting the Minority Voice. Oxford University Press, New York, 2012.[9] Print ISBN 9780195309096
    • Networks and Markets. Contributions from Economics and Sociology (With James Raunch), Russell Sage Foundation, New York, 2001.[10] ISBN 978-0-87154-700-2
    Chapters in Books [3]
    Year Book Chapter Publication
    1989 A European Central Bank? "Management of a Common Currency" p. 131-156 Cambridge University Press: Cambridge
    1992 Establishing a Central Bank "Voting on the Adoption of a Common Currency" p. 164-184 Cambridge University Press: Cambridge
    1994 Monetary Regimes in Transition "Halting Inflation in Italy and France after World War II" p. 312-345 Cambridge University Press: Cambridge
    1995 Politics and Institutions in an Integrated Europe "Elements for a Theory of Jurisdictional Change" p. 11-41 Springer: New York and Heidelberg
    1996 Harmonization and Fair Trade "Free Trade and Evolving Standards" p. 119-156 MIT Press: Cambridge
    2001 Ökonomie als Grundlage politischer Entscheidungen "Policy Coordination and National Sovereignty in a Monetary Union. Two Easy Recipes" p. , 199-217 Leske plus Budrich: Opladen
    2001 Networks and Markets “Concluding Remarks. Questions for Policy” p. 328-337
    2001 The Impact of EMU on Europe and the Developing Countries "Games for Central Bankers. Markets vs Politics in Public Policy Decisions" p. 11-27 Oxford University Press: Oxford

    References
    1. "Alessandra Casella | Columbia | Economics". Retrieved 2019-11-21.
    2. "Columbia Experimental Laboratory for the Social Sciences | ISERP". iserp.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
    3. "Alessandra Casella | Columbia | Economics". Retrieved 2019-11-20.
    4. Casella, Alessandra; Cox, Adam B. (2018-01-02). "A Property Rights Approach to Temporary Work Visas". The Journal of Legal Studies. 47 (S1): S195–S227. doi:10.1086/694166. ISSN 0047-2530.
    5. Casella, Alessandra; Kartik, Navin; Sanchez, Luis; Turban, Sébastien (January 30, 2018). "Communication in context: Interpreting promises in an experiment on competition and trust". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 115 (5): 933–938. doi:10.1073/pnas.1714171115. ISSN 1091-6490. PMC 5798344. PMID 29339524.
    6. Casella, Alessandra; Turban, Sébastien (November 2012). "Democracy Undone. Systematic Minority Advantage in Competitive Vote Markets". doi:10.3386/w18573. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
    7. Casella, Alessandra; Hanaki, Nobuyuki (2006). "Why Personal Ties Cannot Be Bought". The American Economic Review. 96 (2): 261–264. doi:10.1257/000282806777212341. ISSN 0002-8282. JSTOR 30034654.
    8. "Alessandra M. Casella | Political Science". polisci.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
    9. Casella, Alessandra (2011-12-23). Storable Votes: Protecting the Minority Voice. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195309096.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-991817-1.
    10. "Networks and Markets | RSF". www.russellsage.org. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
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