Research projects

In my book project, I study economic elites’ ideas about poverty and inequality and their preferences for taxation. The study is based on a mixed-methods approach, including more than 100 interviews, computerized text analysis, and a survey experiment. As a side project related to economic elites, I study elite’s use of offshore accounts, particularly how this changes over space and time.

I am also interested in the political economy of social policy. One of these projects is centered on Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs) in Latin America - one of the most popular social policies in the region. This project explores differences in the CCT models adopted in the region and asks why some governments opt for a more punitive design than others. Relatedly, I am now investigating Guaranteed Income projects in the United States. Besides participating from the impact evaluation of Evanston’s Guaranteed Income Pilot, I am researching the variation in the design of pilot programs around the country.

Finally, I am collaborating on a project on the politics of opting out from public services. This is part of Latin American and Caribbean Inequality Review initiative led by the London School of Economics. You can find the working version of the first paper here.

Journal Articles

De La O, A., Rossel, C. & Manzi, P. (Forthcoming). Opting Out of Public Services and the Social Contract in Latin America. Oxford Open Economics

García-Montoya, L., & Manzi, P. (2023). From Economic to Political Power: Economic Elites and Policymaking During Times of Crisis. Journal of Politics in Latin America. https://doi.org/10.1177/1866802X231180897

Rossel, C., Antía, F., & Manzi, P. (2023). The Politics of Sanctioning the Poor Through Welfare Conditionality: Revealing Causal Mechanisms in Uruguay. Social Policy & Administration. https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.12911

Amarante, V., Colacce, M., & Manzi, P. (2021). Aging and Productivity in Latin America. Latin American Research Review, 56(4), 844–863. https://doi.org/10.25222/larr.924

Amarante, V., Colacce, M., & Manzi, P. (2017). The Gender Gap in Pensions in Latin America. International Social Security Review, 70(2), 57–85. https://doi.org/10.1111/issr.12135

Book Chapters

Antía, F., Rossel, C., & Manzi, P. (2022). The Politics of Conditionality in Social Investment Reforms: Evidence from Latin America’s Cash Transfers. In The World Politics of Social Investment: The Politics of Varying Social Investment Strategies (Vol. 2). Oxford University Press.

Manzi, P., & Weylandt, M. (2021). Causal Inference and the Scientific Method. In Empirical Methods in the Political Science: An Introduction. Northwestern University Libraries.

Manzi, P. (2021). Data. In Empirical Methods in the Political Science: An Introduction. Northwestern University Libraries.