Internal Members

Co-Directors

Barbara Osimani
Contact:
Department of Biomedical Sciences and Public Health 
Faculty of Medicine and Surgery
Marche Polytechnic University
Via Tronto 10A
60126 Ancona
Italy

Email: b.osimani@univpm.it
Webpage:
Barbara Osimani is Co-Director of the Center for Philosophy, Science, and Policy and Associate Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science at the Polytechnic University of the Marche, Italy.

She recently headed an ERC project, which also ran at the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy, LMU: “Philosophy of Pharmacology: Safety, Statistical Standards, and Evidence Amalgamation” (GA StG 639276). She is member of the Open Science Center at the Ludwig-Maximilians Universität, Munich, and Visiting Professor at the MCMP, LMU. Within her ERC Grant she developed a Bayesian framework for the integration of heterogenous items of evidence and higher order evidence for the purpose of causal assessment of drug-induced harm (“E-Synthesis”), in collaboration with Drug Agencies across Europe.

Her papers address several specific topics around causality, causal inference and philosophy of evidence, particularly the precautionary principle, evidence hierarchies, reliability, bias, reproducibility, and coherence (from a Bayesian perspective).

Her current research interests are focused on foundations of the sciences, philosophy of statistics and scientific inference in research contexts characterised by strategic behaviour. She is particularly interested in formal models of social interactions in diverse scientific ecosystems.
Selected Publications:

Osimani, B. (forthcoming). Science as a signaling game: Statistical evidence in strategic environments.  In A. Broadbent (Ed.), Oxford handbook for philosophy of medicine.
 
Osimani, B., & Landes, J. (2023). Varieties of error and varieties of evidence in scientific inference. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 74. doi:10.1086/714803
 
Osimani B., (2020). Epistemic gains and epistemic games: Reliability and higher order evidence in medicine and pharmacology. In B. Osimani B., & A. La Caze (Eds.), Uncertainty in pharmacology: Epistemology, methods and decisions. Boston Series in Philosophy of Science, pp. 345-372. Springer.
 
Landes, J., Osimani, B., & Poellinger, R. (2018). Epistemology of causal inference in pharmacology: Towards a framework for the assessment of harms. European Journal for Philosophy of Science, 8(1), 3-49.
 
Osimani, B. (2012). Risk information processing and rational ignoring in the health context. Journal of Socio-Economics, 41, 169-179. doi:10.1016/j.socec.2011.10.009

Alexander Gebharter
Contact:
Department of Biomedical Sciences and Public Health
Faculty of Medicine and Surgery
Marche Polytechnic University
Via Tronto 10A
60126 Ancona
Italy

Email: a.gebharter@univpm.it
Webpage: www.alexandergebharter.com
I am an Assistant Professor at the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Public Health at the Marche Polytechnic University (Italy) and principal investigator of PRIN PNRR project Controlling and Utilizing Uncertainty in the Health Sciences, an interdisciplinary cooperation between researchers at UNIVPM and the University of Turin and a member of the SNF and DFG funded research project Beyond Causal Exclusion: New Challenges for Multi-Level Causal Models. Before, I was Principal Investigator of the DFG funded research project Interventions and Mechanistic Hierarchies at the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy (Germany), a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Groningen (Netherlands), and a Research Fellow at the Duesseldorf Center for Logic and Philosophy of Science (Germany). 

I obtained my PhD from the University of Duesseldorf and my MA from the University of Salzburg (Austria). My research interests lie in philosophy of science and its intersection with epistemology, metaphysics, and philosophy of mind. I am especially interested in causation and related topics.

I am editor-in-chief of KRITERION — Journal of Philosophy and honorary treasurer of the German Society for Philosophy of Science and honorary treasurer of the German Society for Philosophy of Science (GWP).
Selected Publications:

Gebharter, A., & Eronen, M. I. (2023). Quantifying proportionality and the limits of higher-level causation and explanation. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 74(3), 573-601. doi:10.1086/714818

Henderson, L., & Gebharter, A. (2021). The role of source reliability in belief polarisation. Synthese, 199(3-4), 10253-10276. 

Feldbacher-Escamilla, C. J., & Gebharter, A. (2020). Confirmation based on analogical inference: Bayes meets Jeffrey. Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 50(2), 174-194. 

Gebharter, A. (2017). Causal exclusion and causal Bayes nets. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 95(2), 353-375. 

Gebharter, A. (2017). Uncovering constitutive relevance relations in mechanisms. Philosophical Studies, 174(11), 2645-2666.

Members

Roberto Esposti
Contact:
Department of Economics and Social Sciences
Faculty of Economics
Marche Polytechnic University
Piazzale Martelli 8
60121 Ancona

Email: r.esposti@staff.univpm.it
Webpage:
Roberto Esposti is a full professor of “Economic Policy” at the Department of Economics and Social Sciences at the Università Politecnica delle Marche. He also teaches courses of “Environmental Economics”, “Ecological Economics” and “European Agricultural Policy”, as well as of “Panel Data Econometrics” in the PhD program in Economics. His main areas of research include policy evaluation in the field of environmental and agricultural policies, technological progress and innovation, structural change and local development.
Selected Publications:

Baldoni, E., & Esposti, R. (2021). Agricultural productivity in space: An econometric assessment based on farm-level data. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 103(4), 1525-1544.

Esposti, R. (2017). The empirics of decoupling: Alternative estimation approaches of the farm-level production response. European Review of Agricultural Economics, 44(3), 499-537.

Coderoni, S., & Esposti, R. (2014). Is there a long-term relationship between agricultural GHG emissions and productivity growth? A dynamic panel data approach. Environmental and Resource Economics, 58(2), 273-302.

Esposti, R., & Bussoletti, S. (2008). Impact of Objective 1 funds on regional growth convergence in the European Union: A panel-data approach. Regional Studies, 42(2), 159-173.

Esposti, R. (2007). Regional growth and policies in the European Union: Does the common agricultural policy have a counter-treatment effect? American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 89(1), 116-134.

Simona Naspetti
Contact:
Department of Materials, Environmental Sciences and Urban Planning
Faculty of Engineering 
Marche Polytechnic University
Via Brecce Bianche 12
60131 Ancona
Italy

Email: simona@agrecon.univpm.it
Webpage:

Aldo Dragoni
Contact:
Department of Information Engineering
Faculty of Engineering 
Marche Polytechnic University
Via Brecce Bianche 12
60131 Ancona
Italy

Email: a.f.dragoni@univpm.it
Webpage:

Federico Giri
Contact:
Department of Economics and Social Sciences
Faculty of Economics
Marche Polytechnic University
Piazzale Martelli 8
60121 Ancona
Italy

Email: f.giri@staff.univpm.it
Webpage:
Federico Giri is a tenure track assistant professor at the Marche Polytechnic University (UNIVPM). His field of research is quantitative and computational macroeconomics. His research has been published in several international journals such as the Journal of Economic Dynamics and Controls, the journal of Economic behavior and organization, and the Economic Modelling.
Selected Publications:

Fratianni, M., Gallegati, M., & Giri, F. (2022). The medium-run Phillips curve: A time-frequency investigation for the UK. The Journal of Macroeconomics, 73, 103450.

Catullo, E., Giri, F., & Gallegati, M. (2021). Macro and micro prudential policies: Sweet and lowdown in a credit network agent based model. Macroeconomic Dynamics, 25(5), 1227-1246.

Gallegati, M., Giri, F., & Palestrini, A. (2019). DSGE model with financial frictions over subsets of business cycle frequencies. Journal of Economic Dynamic and Control, 100, 152-163.

Giri, F., Riccetti, L., Russo, A., & Gallegati, M. (2019). Monetary policy and large crises in a financial accelerator agent-based model. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 157, 42-58.

Giri, F. (2018). Does interbank market matter for business cycle fluctuation? An estimated DSGE model with financial frictions for the Euro area. Economic Modelling, 75, 10-22.

Nicola Matteucci
Contact:
Department of Economics and Social Sciences
Faculty of Economics
Marche Polytechnic University
Piazzale Martelli 8
60121 Ancona
Italy

Email: n.matteucci@univpm.it
Webpage: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nicola-Matteucci-2
Nicola Matteucci (Laurea, MSc and PhD in Economics) is Associate Professor of Applied Economics at Marche Polytechnic University, (UNIVPM, DISES, Italy), and Invited Professor at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI, Switzerland). 
 
He spent teaching and research periods at other institutions (e.g., UNU-MERIT, Nederland; Kelley Business School, Indiana, US). He worked in international research projects and studies, on topics such as: the status of regulation for telecoms, e-government and e-health services in Italy/EU (2021); structural reforms in Italy (2018, for the EU Commission, DG Grow); EU national broadband plans and digital services (2016, DG Connect); financing models for public services in the EU (2015, DG Competition). 
 
He’s block coordinator for Microeconomics at the UNIVPM PhD programme in Economics (since 2015), where he teaches Game Theory and Industrial Organization. He serves in the Editorial Boards of the scientific journals: Springer Nature Business & Economics; L’industria; Journal of Law and Regulation; and Prisma. Formerly, also in the Italian Journal of Public Economics.
 
Nicola’s current research interests are the economics and policy of ICT and network industries (e.g., broadband, gambling, health care, media), institutions, policy-making and regulation. In particular, he’s interested in issues such as sectoral policy performance, conflicts of interest and (scientific) lobbying, institutional quality and regulatory capture.
Selected Publications:

Matteucci, N., Santolini, R., & Di Fabio, S. (2022). ICT diffusion in public administrations and business dynamics: Evidence from Italian municipalities. Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics. Advance online publication. doi:10.1111/apce.12400
 
Matteucci, N. (2021). Procuring NGA infrastructure: The performance of EMAT auctions in Italy. Telecommunications Policy, 45(1),102074.
 
Matteucci, N. (2020). Digital agendas, regional policy and institutional quality: Assessing the Italian broadband plan. Regional Studies, 54(9), 1304-1316.
 
Quaglione, D., Matteucci, N., Furia, D., Marra, A., & Pozzi, C. (2020). Are mobile and fixed broadband substitutes or complements? New empirical evidence from Italy and implications for the digital divide policies. Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, 71, 100823.

Matteucci, N. (2019). The EU State aid policy for broadband: An evaluation of the Italian experience with first generation networks. Telecommunications Policy, 43(9), 101830.

Matteo Picchio
Contact:
Department of Economics and Social Sciences
Faculty of Economics
Marche Polytechnic University
Piazzale Martelli 8
60121 Ancona
Italy

Email: m.picchio@staff.univpm.it
Webpage: https://sites.google.com/site/matteopicchio/research
Matteo Picchio, after studying at Marche Polytechnic University, got his Ph.D. in Economics at the Université catholique de Louvain in 2009. After postdocs at Tilburg University (2009-2012) and Ghent University (2011-2012), in November 2012 he moved back to Marche Polytechnic University, where he has been full professor in Economics since 2022.

His research interests include labour economics, microeconometrics, economics of education, health economics, and economics of ageing. He is particularly interested in treatment evaluation, survival analysis, unemployment duration and future working life, gender inequalities, and meta-analysis. He has accumulated a broad experience in the estimation of nonlinear models and in data handling and analysis, especially using Stata and Matlab.

Since 2015, he has been Associate Editor of the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization.
Selected Publications:

Picchio, M. (2022). Retirement and health outcomes in a meta-analytical framework. Journal of Economic Surveys. Advance online publication. doi:10.1111/joes.12527

Picchio, M., Pigini, C., Staffolani, S., & Verashchagina, A. (2021). If not now, when? The timing of childbirth and labour market outcomes. Journal of Applied Econometrics, 36, 663-685.

Albanese, A., Picchio, M., & Ghirelli, C. (2020). Timed to say goodbye: Does unemployment benefit eligibility affect worker layoffs? Labour Economics, 65, 101846.

Cockx, B., Picchio, M., & Baert, S. (2019). Modeling the effects of grade retention in high school. Journal of Applied Econometrics, 34, 403-424.

Picchio, M., Suetens, S., & van Ours, J. C. (2018). Labour supply effects of winning a lottery. The Economic Journal, 128, 1700-1729.

Michał Sikorski
Contact:
Department of Biomedical Sciences and Public Health
Faculty of Medicine and Surgery
Marche Polytechnic University
Via Tronto 10A
60126 Ancona
Italy

Email: michalpsikorski@gmail.com
Webpage: https://sikorskiphilosophy.wordpress.com
Michał Sikorski is a postdoctoral researcher at the PRIN PNRR project “Controlling and Utilizing Uncertainty in the Health Sciences”. He obtained his MA at the University of Barcelona and his PhD in 2020 at the University of Turin. His interests include normative issues in the philosophy of science, such as scientific objectivity or self-correction, the philosophy of psychology, the philosophy of forensic science, and the semantics of conditionals.
Selected Publications:

Sikorski, M., van Dongen, N., & Sprenger, J. (2024). Causal conditionals, tendency causal claims and statistical relevance. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 1, 1-26.

Sikorski, M. (2023). Rethinking the acceptability and probability of indicative conditionals. In S. Kaufmann, D. Over, & G. Sharma (Eds.), Conditionals: Logic, linguistics, and psychology. Palgrave.

Sikorski, M., & Andreoletti, M. (2023). Epistemic functions of replicability in experimental sciences: Defending the orthodox view. Foundations of Science.

Sikorski, M. (2022). The Ramsey test and evidential support theory. Journal of Logic, Language and Information, 31(3), 493-504.

Sikorski, M. (2022). Is forensic science in crisis? Synthese, 200(3), 1-34.

van Dongen, N., & Sikorski, M. (2021). Objectivity for the research worker. European Journal for Philosophy of Science, 11(3), 1-25.

Alessandro Sterlacchini
Contact:
Department of Economics and Social Sciences
Faculty of Economics
Marche Polytechnic University
Piazzale Martelli 8
60121 Ancona
Italy

Email: a.sterlacchini@univpm.it
Webpage: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alessandro-Sterlacchini
Alessandro Sterlacchini (born 1959; MSc, University of Sussex, 1988; PhD, University of Ancona, 1989) is Full Professor of Applied Economics at the Università Politecnica delle Marche (Ancona, Italy) where he teaches Microeconomics (under-graduate level) and Economics of Innovation (post-graduate). His research activity has been mainly developed in the field of the Economics of Innovation, with special focus on the determinants and economic effects of R&D, patents, and innovations. In this connection, he carried out and published in international refereed journals several empirical studies concerned with industries, firms, and geographical areas. Most of these studies are policy-oriented and recent ones include assessments of the impact of public subsidies and tax incentives on business R&D.
Selected Publications:

Divella M., & Sterlacchini A. (2021). Determinants of sustainable & responsible innovations: A firm-level analysis for Italy. Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, 59, 360-374.

Divella M., & Sterlacchini A. (2020). Public procurement for innovation: firm-level evidence from Italy and Norway. Industrial and Corporate Change, 20, 1505-1520.

Sterlacchini A. (2020). Trends and determinants of energy innovations: Patents, environmental policies and oil prices. Journal of Economic Policy Reform, 23, 49-66.

Sterlacchini A., & Venturini F. (2019). R&D tax incentives in EU countries: Does the impact vary with firm size? Small Business Economics, 53, 687-708.

Aristei D., Sterlacchini A., & Venturini F. (2017). Effectiveness of R&D subsidies during the crisis: Firm-level evidence across EU countries. Economics of Innovation and New Technology, 26, 554-573.

Raffaele Zanoli
Contact:
Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences
Faculty of Agriculture
Marche Polytechnic University
Via Brecce Bianche 10 
60131 Ancona
Italy

Email: r.zanoli@univpm.it
Webpage: