Isabela Manelici
Welcome to my website! I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics of the London School of Economics and Political Science.
I was awarded a 2025-2030 ERC Starting Grant for "LINK4DEV: Can Multinational Linkages Be Leveraged for Development?". ​​
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I am affiliated with the CEP (Center for Economic Performance, Trade and Urban), CEPR (International Trade and Regional Economics), CESifo (Global Economy Area), IGC (International Growth Center), POID (Programme on Innovation and Diffusion), RFBerlin (ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin), and STICERD (Suntory & Toyota International Centres for Economics).
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Curriculum Vitae and Google Scholar
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Focus: International Economics, Economic Development, Firm Organisation​​
Email: i.manelici@lse.ac.uk
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Note on Ph.D. admissions, RA and postdoc opportunities: link
RESEARCH​
Working Papers
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Responsible Sourcing? Evidence from Costa Rica (link). NBER WP 30683
with Alonso Alfaro-Ureña, Benjamin Faber, Cecile Gaubert, and José P. Vasquez
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Status: New March 2025 draft. Second Round Revise-and-Resubmit at the American Economic Review
Trade Talks podcast episode (39 mins), VoxDev summary, VoxEU summary
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The Effects of Multinationals on Workers: Evidence from Costa Rican Microdata (link)
with Alonso Alfaro-Ureña and José P. Vasquez
Status: New draft in progress
ReVista (Harvard Review of Latin America) article
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Selected Work in Progress
The Gains from Foreign Multinationals in an Economy with Distortions
with Mauricio Ulate, José P. Vasquez and Román David Zárate
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Peer-Reviewed Publications
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The Effects of Joining Multinational Supply Chains: New Evidence from Firm-to-Firm Linkages (link)
with Alonso Alfaro-Ureña and José P. Vasquez
Quarterly Journal of Economics. Volume 137, Issue 3, Aug. 2022, 1495–1552. Working Paper w/ Online Appendix (link)
VoxDev summary, IGC summary, "The Visible Hand" podcast (46 mins), Faculti interview (21 mins), LSE Business Review
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Industrial Policy at Work: Evidence from Romania's Income Tax Break for Workers in IT (link)
with Smaranda Pantea
European Economic Review. Volume 133, Apr. 2021. Working Paper (link) w/ Online Appendix (link)
Trade Talks podcast episode (51 mins), VoxEU summary, Presentation recording (minute 58)
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Journal of Urban Economics. Volume 102, Nov. 2017, 52-75. Working Paper (link)
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Other Publications
London Consensus response to Ricardo Hausmann's chapter on "Export-Led Growth". "London Consensus, Economic Principles for the 21st Century". Edited by Tim Besley, Irene Bucelli and Andrés Velasco. LSE Press, October 2025
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VoxDevLit on "International Trade" (with Atkin, Boudreau, Dix-Carneiro, Khandelwal, McCaig, Medina, Morjaria, Pascali, Pellegrina, Rijkers, and Startz). VoxDevLit, 4(2), February 2025
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VoxDevLit on "Foreign Direct Investment and Development" (with Alviarez, Boudreau, Dardati, Fan, Farrokhi, Garcia-Lembergman, Garetto, Gu, Hale, Hemous, Limodio, Martin, Morales, Pandalai-Nayar, Pavcnik, Pellegrina, Ramondo, Vasquez, and Vezina). VoxDevLit, 13(1), February 2025
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2024 WTO Trade Report on "Trade and Inclusiveness." Opinion Piece on “The Promise and Pitfalls of Responsible Sourcing in Global Value Chains” page 133 (with Alfaro-Ureña, Faber, Gaubert, and Vasquez)
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