My research career started by studying economic growth and structural change, and is now approaching the study of economic growth and individual human development. I was always interested in the endogenous mechanisms of change at micro-level, in interaction with the favourable or thwarting conditions at macro-level.
My recent research attempts to introduce into economics the main insight of modern humanistic psychology, i.e. that the development of individual capacities is endogenous, and makes people happy with themselves and with others. Two reciprocal issues can thus be better understood: how economic growth favours or thwarts the development of individuals’ capacities, and hence their happiness and sociability; and how these capacities can spur and shape economic growth. The first issue addresses the fact that people’s happiness may lag behind economic growth, as the Easterlin paradox predicts. The second issue addresses the fact that sustainable economic growth needs people’ capacities both to create new things, and to adopt socially responsible behaviours.
Citations
H-index of citations in Google Scholar: 24 with about 2300 citations (April 2025).
H-index of citations in Scopus: 11 with about 400 citations (April 2025).