About me
I am a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance, at Princeton University. During my PhD at the Geneva Graduate Institute, I have been a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Government at Harvard University (2024). My research sits at the intersection of international political economy, institutional design, and trade and investment governance. My work spans the global economy, with particular attention to the European Union.
My dissertation—Three Essays on International-Cooperation Problems and Institutional-Design Solutions—asks why governments choose particular institutional-design solutions when they (re-)negotiate preferential trade agreements (PTAs) and bilateral investment treaties (BITs), and how these design features impact subsequent cooperation. I adopt a mixed-method approach, combining causal inference with in-depth case studies and elite interviews.
I have been a Swiss National Science Foundation PhD Researcher at the University of Geneva, working on the project “Crisis, Criticism, and Change in the Investment Arbitration System” led by Prof. Thomas Schultz. My team and I researched the political economy of the “backlash” against the investment arbitration (ISDS) system and how this has impacted the negotiation and design of international investment agreements. Before starting my PhD, I was also a research assistant at the Centre for Trade and Economic Integration, at the Geneva Graduate Institute. Beyond Geneva, I am an affiliate of Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science (IQSS) and a member of the Digital Society Initiative at the University of Zurich.
Before my doctoral studies, I worked as a policy analyst at Access Partnership Ltd. in London, focusing on digital and tech policies in the EU and the UK. I gained policy experience through a number of traineeships at the European Commission and at the Embassies of Italy in the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic. I hold an MA in International Relations/Political Science from the Geneva Graduate Institute and a BA (First Class Honours) in International Relations from King’s College London, Department of War Studies. In my free time, I enjoy playing the piano, reading, and practicing sports.
Lej da Staz, Graubünden, Switzerland, 2023 (photo: L. Biffi)