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?".
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).
Curriculum Vitae and Google Scholar
Focus: International Economics, Economic Development, Firm Organisation
Email: i.manelici@lse.ac.uk
Note on Ph.D. admissions, RA and postdoc opportunities: link
RESEARCH
Working Papers
Responsible Sourcing? Evidence from Costa Rica (link). NBER WP 30683
with Alonso Alfaro-Ureña, Benjamin Faber, Cecile Gaubert, and José P. Vasquez
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
The Anatomy of Domestic Production Networks: Evidence from Costa Rica (link)
with Alonso Alfaro-Ureña, Mariany Fuentes, José Ignacio González, and José P. Vasquez
Status: Submitted. Supersedes “Costa Rican Production Network: Stylized Facts” (2018)
The Gains from Foreign Multinationals in an Economy with Distortions
with Mauricio Ulate, José P. Vasquez and Román David Zárate
Status: Draft available upon request
The Effects of Multinationals on Workers: Evidence from Costa Rican Microdata (link)
with Alonso Alfaro-Ureña and José P. Vasquez
Status: New substantially-revised draft in progress
ReVista (Harvard Review of Latin America) article
Peer-Reviewed Publications
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
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)
Journal of Urban Economics. Volume 102, Nov. 2017, 52-75. Working Paper (link)
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
VoxDevLit on "International Trade" (with Atkin, Boudreau, Dix-Carneiro, Khandelwal, McCaig, Medina, Morjaria, Pascali, Pellegrina, Rijkers, and Startz). VoxDevLit, 4(2), February 2025
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
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)