Faculty Spotlight

Davide Debortoli:
A Passion for Numbers

By Briana Weisinger

Being exposed to professors with different views and approaches to economics was crucial for me to think critically about the literature and to stimulate my research interests.
— Davide Debortoli

From a young age Davide Debortoli, Ph.D., held mathematics near and dear to his heart. In elementary school, numbers sparked a passion within, and he could often be found eagerly doing his homework in hopes of understanding the “simple” math of the past. But as an Italian born and raised in Verona, a town famous as home of Romeo and Juliet, it was impossible for Davide to not be influenced by the classics. At the end of high school, after studying ancient Greek and Latin, he was sure he wanted to become an engineer. However, humanistic traditions had sunk deep into his psyche and emerged in his chosen field of economics. The way economists fuse humanism with mathematically intensive social science made sense for Davide. He believes “studying ancient Greek and Latin … was certainly helpful in learning to combine rigorous rules with personal interpretation, which I think are the fundamentals of economics.”

From Verona to Austin

At the age of nineteen, Davide discovered a world outside the Verona walls when he moved to Milan to study at Università Bocconi. He was initially drawn to financial institutions and markets but quickly changed his mind after his first taste of micro- and macroeconomics. With his interest in economics solidified, Davide headed to the U.S. for the first time in 2001 to study in Austin at the University of Texas. A few months later, he researched the impact of the Argentinean economic crisis, which led to the devaluation of the peso and the country’s subsequent default on sovereign debt. This research was the foundation of his undergraduate thesis. His analysis of the increase in money supply in the aftermath of Argentina’s crisis, and its failure to lead to economic recovery, helped him complete his B.S. in economics with honors from Università Bocconi.

Graduate Study and Loose Committment

After graduating, Davide joined an investment bank in Milan. The practical work experience was enjoyable, but Davide declares, “It certainly helped me clarify that I wanted to do research.” Six months later, Davide was back at Università Bocconi as a research assistant. During his year as research assistant, Davide acquired invaluable skills, including programming and data analysis, before heading off to graduate school in Barcelona at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF). Davide was happy to share some of his thoughts on admission: “I was glad to receive their offer, since they had, and still have, one of the best economic departments in Europe. Since the beginning of the 90s, the UPF made a terrific job in reversing the brain drain from the U.S., being able to attract several renown professors from top schools like Harvard, MIT, Columbia, Minnesota, NYU, etc. I had a great time during my five years in Barcelona. Being exposed to professors with different views and approaches to economics was crucial for me to think critically about the literature and to stimulate my research interests. In addition, given the friendly environment, I learned a great deal by collaborating with other graduate students.”

During his time at UPF, Davide’s research focused on the inability of policymakers to credibly commit to fulfill their promises and how that impacts policy design. Situations such as these are often the result of political turnover, and thus are quite common in countries like Italy where the government changed sixty-two times in the last fifty-four years. While working on his thesis, Davide and Ricardo Nunes from the Federal Reserve Bank developed the “loose commitment” approach to evaluate these types of situations. Their approach is currently being incorporated into economic models used at central banks both in Europe and the U.S., which to Davide “Came as quite a surprise … It’s encouraging to see that sometimes our work can have some practical use.”

At UC San Diego

Davide’s research at UPF positioned him in high demand on the job market after graduating. He chose to join UC San Diego’s Department of Economics because of our reputation for excellence across many fields, as well as our friendly and collaborative environment. Now Davide is living in San Diego with his wife, Barbara, and teaching ECON 110A with the very book that sparked his interest in macroeconomics and introduced him to the field ten years ago: Macroeconomics by Olivier Blanchard.