Previously, he has been working as post-doc research fellow at Bocconi University in Milan (Italy). He obtained a PhD in Applied Statistics from the University of Florence (Italy) in 2008 with a thesis titled â€œCausal inference for observational studies extended to a multilevel setting. The impact of fertility on poverty in Vietnamâ€�. The thesis was awarded by the Italian Statistical Society the price as the best thesis in Applied Statistics 2007/2008. His main research interests are in the areas of causal inference and multilevel models and their application in the socio-demographic field. He has published articles in international peer-reviewed journals such as Journal of the Royal Statistical Society A, Computational Statistics and Data Analysis, Empirical Economics, Regional Studies, Environment and Planning A, Quality & Quantity.