Baccini Leonardo

Leonardo Baccini is a research fellow at IMT Lucca. He completed his PhD in Political Science at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, in September 2009. He holds an MA in International Relations from University of Bologna and a Laurea in Economics from University of Florence. Before joining IMT, Lucca Baccini was a post-doctoral fellow at New York University from September 2008 to June 2009.

Using a political economy perspective, his PhD dissertation addressed the formation of preferential trade agreements. Specifically, he focused on two themes: (i) the impact of domestic political institutions on economic integration; (ii) the influence of incomplete contracts on the bargaining process among countries.

He is currently carrying out four broad projects:

•    The effect of policy diffusion on the proliferation of trade agreements (with Andreas Dür, University of Salzburg)
•    Differences and similarities between EU bilateralism and US bilateralism (with Soo Yeon Kim, University of Maryland)
•    Credible Commitments and Costly Adjustments: The impact of foreign aid on international cooperation (with Johannes Urpelainen, Columbia University
•    Global Energy Governance: Does Trade Explain States Membership in International Organizations? (with Paul W. Thurner, University of Munich).

Baccini’s main research interests are political economy of international trade, international cooperation, international organisations, development studies, democratic transition, and spatial econometrics.