Interview for the Economic Department Newsletter 2016
Note: my only justification for this is that I have been following orders.
Q: What is your position in the Department and how long have you worked here?
A: I joined the Department in August 2015 as assistant professor. Everyone seems to think I am a PhD student. Including my mum. I like to think it is about looking younger.
Q: What does your typical working day consist of and what are you currently working on?
A: Apart from having a coffee in the morning and reading a bit before going to sleep, there is little routine in my work. All of what happens in between these two moments (and when/where) is a bit of a day to day surprise.
At the moment I am working on the revisions of a paper on fiscal shocks, and dealing with two new projects about misspecifications in time series econometric models and monetary policy shocks.
Q: What do you enjoy most about your work?
A: Intellectual and personal freedom – it is an incredible privilege for which I am genuinely grateful. I also enjoy greatly having the chance of meeting and exchanging ideas with incredibly intelligent, cultivated and approachable colleagues and PhD students.
Q: What do you like most about working in the Department?
A: I think it is a truly humbling experience to work in the Economics Department of Warwick, where colleagues have such a vast range of talents, skills and areas of expertise. Also, I am always amazed by the competence, efficiency and kindness of our staff members.
On a different note, I really like to have to cross a nice bit of countryside coming to work – you can spot hawks, wild rabbits, pheasants and even deer.
Q: What is the highlight of your career to date?
A: Joining Warwick?
Q: What would you like to have achieved professionally in the next 5 years?
A: Convincing my mum that I am no longer a student? (How to blame her after two PhDs?)
On a more serious note, I hope to contribute in pushing forwards our understanding of how macroeconomic shocks affect the economy, the role of informational frictions in their transmission and how to empirically model macroeconomic variables.
Q: What would your alternative career have been?
A: Astronaut. That is what I used to say when I was 5. Physics, more likely, given my background.
Q: What do you like doing when you are not working?
A: I enjoy very much travelling to not very touristic places - hiking and exploring new places and connecting to different cultures. Sometimes a walk in the countryside is just enough to remind me that there is a world outside my office.
I try and read regularly, go to cinema, theatre, opera, art exhibitions… Also, I have a passion for archeology and tribal art…
Once upon a time, I used to enjoy taking photos. Then I destroyed the camera during my last travel.
Q: What is your favourite song and why?
Some of the verses of `If’ by Kipling and `Ithaka’ by Cavafy are dear to me – despite many ambiguities.
Q: What would you do if you were King/Queen for a day?
Abolish monarchy?!
Q: Tell us something we don't know.
I had testing times answering these questions.