Work projects and research
Modeling self-conscious decision-making in London contract environments
Company
Inhalation Dev
Summary
Behavioral modeling project on how self-consciousness shapes high-stakes contract decisions in the London commercial property market.
- Developed a conceptual and computational framework to simulate how emotional tension, identity investment, and cognitive load influence contract-signing behavior.
- Integrated research from social psychology and consumer behavior on self-consciousness, impression management, and socially sensitive purchasing decisions.
- Designed a modular agent-based model structure allowing adaptation across industries (commercial property, finance, tech) and contract types (traditional lease, serviced office, managed office).
Methods: Literature synthesis, conceptual modeling, agent design framework, cross-domain generalization
AI-driven risk intelligence from large-scale news and signal data for strategic decisions
Company
Emerging Trajectories
Summary
Applied AI and market intelligence research to anticipate risks, opportunities, and macro shifts for clients including HP, GoodMills, and Morgan Stanley.
- Designed structured keyword-discovery workflow to retrieve high-signal news from large media APIs and reduce topic noise.
- Built prompt frameworks to turn raw article streams into scenario hypotheses and forward-looking narratives.
- Produced sector-specific outlooks combining geopolitical events, economic indicators, and behavioral drivers for client briefings.
Methods: News data retrieval, prompt design, scenario synthesis, signal filtering
Detecting industry opportunities and best-fit growth areas for GTM strategy
Company
Toptal
Summary
Mandate to identify untapped industries and high-value prospects for go-to-market execution.
- Built a data-driven industry evaluation model using 22 metrics from sources including US BLS, Lightcast, and BlackRock to score industry attractiveness and ability to win.
- Produced industry scorecards and prospect-needs discovery outputs covering outlook, strategic priorities, technological needs, and SWOT.
- Prioritized Healthcare and Life Sciences, Financial Services, and Industrials for prototyping; work informed outreach campaigns and launch of a new consulting offer.
Methods: Industry scoring model, account prioritization, prospect-needs discovery
Improving micro-mobility behavior
Summary
Behavioral intervention design with a micromobility company to reduce parking violations.
- Ran a survey of 500 riders in Germany to identify behavioral drivers of non-compliant parking and define target segments.
- Designed two app interventions based on social norms and care priming (context-specific parking pop-ups).
- Achieved a 12% reduction in measurable parking violations and reduced local authority claims.
Methods: Survey research, segmentation, intervention design
Increasing credit card take-up rate
Summary
Behavioral experimentation with a banking partner to improve credit-card adoption.
- Executed two randomized online studies (n=1,000 each, EU 18+) via Qualtrics to test product and information design changes.
- Study 1 tested card color (red vs black); Study 2 tested information framing with and without a non-informative positive image.
- Preliminary outcomes showed +11.8% hypothetical take-up for black cards and +4.8% for image-supported communication.
Methods: Randomized survey experiments, linear and logistic regression (Matlab, Stata)
Behavioral macroeconomics, climate and development economics, agent-based modeling, household finance, and misinformation.
The leverage self-delusion: perceived wealth and cognitive sophistication
Authors
Assenza, Tiziana; Cardaci, Alberto; Delli Gatti, Domenico
Publication
Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination
2025
Links
Laboratory evidence shows participants misjudge net worth based on leverage composition even when objective wealth is identical. Misperception is associated with lower cognitive sophistication and stronger consumption responses to income shocks, highlighting perception bias in financial behavior.
Fake News: Susceptibility, Awareness and Solutions
Authors
Assenza, Tiziana; Cardaci, Alberto; Huber, Stefanie
Publication
Toulouse School of Economics Working Paper
No. 1519 (2024)
Links
RCT with a fake-news detection task and personalized feedback shows participants overestimate their ability to identify misinformation. Learning true susceptibility increases willingness to pay for protection, supporting demand-side policy interventions based on belief updating.
Consumption and Account Balances in Crises: Have We Neglected Cognitive Load?
Authors
Assenza, Tiziana; Cardaci, Alberto; Haliassos, Michael
Publication
Toulouse School of Economics Working Paper
No. 1499 (2023)
Links
Randomized online experiment on French households studies consumption and savings decisions under income risk. Cognitive load reduces consumption and increases balances because decision rules become less optimal, revealing limits of standard intertemporal consumption models under high mental load.
Inequality and imbalances: a monetary union agent-based model
Authors
Cardaci, Alberto; Saraceno, Francesco
Publication
Journal of Evolutionary Economics
29, 853-890 (2019)
Links
A two-country ABM explains Eurozone-type imbalances: inequality plus credit access drives debt-led growth in borrowing countries and export-led growth in lending countries. Cross-border lending sustains demand until sudden stops trigger crisis and balance-of-payments divergence.
Between Scylla and Charybdis: income distribution, consumer credit, and business cycles
Authors
Cardaci, Alberto; Saraceno, Francesco
Publication
Economic Inquiry
57(2), 953-971 (2019)
Links
A computational macro model with heterogeneous households shows two inequality-driven regimes: credit expansion produces debt-led booms and fragility, while constrained credit produces demand collapse and recession. Progressive taxation stabilizes the economy more effectively than countercyclical fiscal policy.
Inequality, household debt and financial instability: An agent-based perspective
Authors
Cardaci, Alberto
Publication
Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
149, 434-458 (2018)
Links
Builds a credit-network ABM with heterogeneous households, peer-driven consumption, mortgages, and housing markets to reinterpret the 2007-08 crisis. Rising inequality triggers imitation-led consumption and debt accumulation, increasing non-performing loans and endogenously generating financial instability.
Policy experiments in an agent-based model with credit networks
Authors
Assenza, Tiziana; Cardaci, Alberto; Delli Gatti, Domenico; Grazzini, Jakob
Publication
Economics: The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal
12(2018-47)
Links
Extends a macro ABM with an interbank network and public sector to compare fixed rates, Taylor rule, helicopter money, and regulatory constraints. Taylor-rule policy reduces crisis frequency and duration, and leverage regulation outperforms liquidity regulation for system stability.
Impact of rainfall pattern on cereal market and food security in Sudan: stochastic approach and CGE model
Authors
Sassi, Maria; Cardaci, Alberto
Publication
Food Policy
43, 321-331 (2013)
Links
Monte Carlo rainfall scenarios are integrated into a CGE model of Sudan to estimate food-security impacts. Lower rainfall reduces cereal output, raises prices, lowers income, and disproportionately harms poorer households, showing that food policy should integrate environmental risk with macroeconomic dynamics.
Social signal intelligence for interactive AI systems
Company
Interhuman AI
Summary
Behavioral AI work focused on building models that detect and respond to human interaction dynamics.
Methods: Multi-annotator labeling, signal taxonomy design, behavioral feedback mapping