Keele Management School

Gabriella holds an LLB in Law from the University of Milan, an MSc in Economics from  Warwick University, an MA in Social Policy from Warwick University and a PhD in Economic
Policy from the Universities of Milan (joint programme of Bocconi, Cattolica and Statale). 

Before joining Keele in 2005, she was a Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge and a Lecturer in Economic Analysis of Competition Law and Regulation at Brunel University.

Gabriella is also a Member of Pembroke College (University of Cambridge) and a Research Fellow at the Rimini Centre for Economic Research, and she is affiliated with prestigious
international research networks, such as the CESifo Research Network (Public Sector Economics Area) and the Euro Area Business Cycle Research Network.

Gabriella has a consolidated international reputation in public finance and fiscal policy, documented by several published papers in highly ranked international journals,
presentations at conferences and invited papers. Her research has been quoted by the media in different occasions, and has also been formally taught within training programmes
organised by the International Monetary Fund.

My current research interests are in public finance, fiscal policy, and political economy.

I am currently working on the analysis of the long-run sustainability of sovereign debt in the European Monetary Union, introducing time and state-varying thresholds for fiscal
consolidation. This innovative empirical approach enables to model a non-linear behaviour of fiscal policy authorities in different phases of the economic cycle as well as in relation
to the pressure from financial markets. Preliminary results applied to the GIPS (i.e. Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain) confirm that fiscal policy authorities correct budgetary
unbalances only when they become “too large”. Endogenously estimated thresholds for fiscal adjustment are consistently higher than the European Growth and Stability Pact
criteria, confirming some amount of “debt tolerance” within the peripheral Eurozone countries. Further, thresholds for fiscal consolidation are not fixed, but vary during periods of
financial pressure.

A second (and related) stream of research refers to the sustainability of the current account and the empirical testing of the hypothesis of “twin deficits” in the Eurozone, trying to identify
a possible link between current account and budgetary unbalances.  

CURRENT PROJECTS

“The Political Economy of the Growth of Governments”, under revision.
“Twin Deficits and the Effect of Fiscal Policy”

EXTERNAL ACTIVITIES

• Member of the Euro Area Business Cycle Network (since 2012)
• Member of the CESifo research network (since 2007)
• Fellow, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis (since 2008)
• External Examiner, BSc Economics, University of Greenwich (2010-2013)
• External Examiner, MSc Finance, SOAS University of London (since 2013)
• PhD External Examiner, University of Pretoria (2012)
• Academic visitor, Department of Economics, Warwick University (2006)

ENGAGEMENT WITH MEDIA/POLICY-MAKERS

• “A Varying Threshold Linked to Debt History and Crisis Fear”, published letter to the
Financial Times (06.05.2013)
• Fully funded personal invitation to attend the 12th
Munich Economic Summit on
“Relaunching Europe”, bringing together policy-makers, most influential media and
selected few academics (May 2013).
• “An Escape Valve is Useless in Heavy Rain or Strong Wind”, published letter to the
Financial Times (02.04.2013)
• BBC Radio Stoke interview on the role of credit rating agencies (February 2012)

Refereeing

ESRC, Economic Inquiry, Public Choice, Applied Economics, Applied Economics
Letters, Regional Studies, Oxford University Press, Fiscal Studies, Economic Modelling,
Macroeconomic Dynamics, FinanzArchiv, Public Finance Analysis.

Membership of Editorial Boards

Advisory Editor for Public Finance (Volume 55), 2008.

PhD Supervision

First Supervisor of: Taptuk Emre Ercok (submitted in June 2013) and Gohou Danon
(expected submission: December 2013).

Selected Conference/Workshop Presentations

International Institute of Public Finance, Annual Conference, Taormina 2013.
15th ZEW Summer Workshop on “Current Fiscal Policy Challenges in Europe”, Mannheim, 2013 (invited paper),
Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis, 2nd Time Series Workshop, 2013 (invited paper)
13th Munich International Economic Summit (invited participant)
CESifo Area Conference on Public Sector Economics, Munich 2013 (invited paper).
20th International Conference on Computational Statistics, Limassol, Cyprus 2012.
International Institute of Public Finance Annual Conference, “Public Finance, Public Debt and Global Recovery”, Dresden 2012 (2 papers).
International Finance and Banking Society Conference on "Rethinking Banking and Finance: Money, Macro, and Models", Valencia 2012.
International Monetary Fund, Training Programme on Macroeconomic Management, 2012.
5th International conference on Computational and Financial Econometrics, University of London, December 2011.
CESifo Area Conference on Public Sector Economics, Munich 2011. (invited paper)
Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis, annual conference, Rimini 2010 (invited paper)
CESifo Area Conference on Public Sector Economics, Munich 2009. (invited paper)
CESifo Area Conference on Macro, Money and International Finance, Munich 2008 (invited discussant) Royal Economic Society, Annual Conference, Warwick 2008
Bielefeld 1st ARC Workshop on Pensions and the Reform of the Welfare State (invited presentation)
International Institute of Public Finance, Warwick 2007 (2 papers).
World Congress of the Public Choice Society, Amsterdam 2007.
Public Economic Theory annual conference, Beijing 2004.
International Institute of Public Finance Annual Conference, Bocconi, Milan, 2004
Royal Economic Society, annual conference, Swansea, April 2004
Seminar: “Financing and Managing Public Services”, Oxford University, March 2003
North American Meeting of the Econometric Society, University of California, Los Angeles, June 2002
European Public Choice Society, Annual Meeting, Belgirate, April 2002 (2 papers).
Society of Non-linear Dynamics and Econometrics Meeting, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, March 2002.
International Institute of Public Finance, annual meeting, Linz, August 2002.

[21] G. Legrenzi and C. Milas (2014), “Estimating Fiscal Reaction Functions with Time and State-Varying Parameters”, forthcoming, Economic Letters.
[20] G. Legrenzi and C. Milas (2012), ''Long-Run Debt Sustainability and Threshold Adjustments: Non-Linear Empirical Evidence from the GIIPS'', Economics Bulletin, Vol. 32
No. 3 pp. 2586-2593.
[19] G. Legrenzi and C. Milas (2012), “Fiscal Policy Sustainability, Economic Cycle and Financial Crises: Some Evidence from the GIPS”, Proceedings of the 20th
International Conference on Computational Statistics, pp.485-498, Lymassol, Cyprus.
[18] G. Legrenzi and C. Milas (2012), “Non-linearities and the Sustainability of the Government’s Intertemporal Budget Constraint”, Economic Inquiry, 50(4), pp. 988-999.
[17] J. Bennett, E. Iossa, G. Legrenzi (2010), “Commercial Activity as Insurance: the Investment Behaviour of Nonprofit Organisations”, Annals of Public and Cooperative
economics, 81: 445–465.
[16] G. Legrenzi (2008), “The Permanent Impact of Domestic Income on the Growth of Governments”, Public Finance/Finances Publiques 55(1-2), pp.22-47.
[15] G. Legrenzi and C. Milas (2006), “Non-linear real exchange rate effects in the UK labour market”, Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics and Econometrics, 10(1),
[14] G. Legrenzi (2004), “The Displacement Effect in the Growth of Governments”, Public Choice, 120(1-2), pp: 191-204.
[13] J. Bennett, E. Iossa, G. Legrenzi (2003), “The Role of Commercial Nonprofit Organisations in the Provision of Public Services”, Oxford Review of Economic Policy 19(2),
pp.335-347.
[12] G. Legrenzi and C. Milas (2002), “The Role of Omitted Variables in Identifying a LongRun Equilibrium for the Italian Government Growth”, International Tax and Public Finance,
August 2002; 9(4): 435-49.
[11] G. Legrenzi and C. Milas (2002), “Non Linear and Asymmetric Adjustment in the Local Revenue-Expenditure Models: Some Evidence from the Italian Municipalities”, Proceedings
of the 2002 North American Summer Meetings of the Econometric Society, Volume 1: Urban and Public Economics, edited by David K. Levine, William Zame, Lawrence Ausubel, Roger

2013-2014 (On leave Semester One)

• ECO-20037 Open Economy Macroeconomics
• ECO-30037 International Finance

Previous teaching:

Statistics for Economics and Finance II, Macroeconomics III, Management Science I,
Managerial Economics II, Applied Finance (MSc), Research Methods in Finance (MSc),
Macroeconomics I, Microeconomics III, Contemporary Issues in Economics, Market
Imperfection and Market Failures