Lorenzo Casaburi
Associate Professor of Development Economics
After holding the position as Assistant Professor, endowed by Swiss Re at Zurich’s Department of Economics for five years, Lorenzo Casaburi is now Associate Professor of Development Economics at the University of Zurich. Before he joined the University of Zurich, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), Stanford University. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard. Professor Casaburi is an Affiliated Professor at the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J - PAL Global), a Research Affiliate at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), the Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) and the International Growth Centre (IGC), and a member of the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD). His research focuses on two main agendas. In the first, he focuses on agricultural markets in Sub-Saharan Africa, with an emphasis on market structure and agricultural finance. Recent papers in this area study the impact of saving constraints on agricultural markets and the design of novel agricultural insurance products for smallholders. In the second, he looks at state capacity, with an emphasis on tax enforcement. Recent work in this area includes a paper on the impact of tax enforcement policies on voting behavior and ongoing collaboration with the Kenya Revenue Authority on projects aimed at reducing evasion of rental income tax and value added tax. Professor Casaburi’s research has been funded by several institutions, including USAID, DFID, IGC, 3ie, and JPAL.