PHD THESIS
Provisional PhD Thesis Title: Three Essays in Macroeconomics: Information Frictions, Expectations and Monetary Policy Transmission
Expected Completion Date: Fall 2027
PhD Supervisor & 2nd Reader: Ugo Panizza and Cédric Tille
My research studies how information frictions shape the expectations that households and firms hold and the reach of the macroeconomic forces that act on them. Economic agents do not observe the economy fully or continuously: attention is scarce, information is costly to acquire, and beliefs are updated slowly and unevenly. I ask how these frictions govern the way households and firms perceive inflation and their own economic circumstances, and how the resulting gaps between perception and reality distort the decisions those beliefs are meant to guide, including the pricing and wage-setting choices through which expectations feed back into inflation dynamics themselves. I then carry the same logic to the transmission of monetary policy, studying how the frictions that separate borrowers from lenders shape the extent to which shifts in the policy rate reach the terms households face. The unifying claim is that imperfect information is not a marginal detail but a central force in economic behavior, governing both how agents come to understand the economy and how effectively macroeconomic policy is transmitted to them.
PROFILE
Giovanni Borraccia is a PhD researcher in Economics at the Graduate Institute of Geneva. Between 2020 and 2021 he was a research trainee at the European Central Bank within DG-Economics being responsible for the Baltic country desk and leading periodic rounds of macroeconomic forecasting. Between 2021 and 2023 he held research analyst positions at the World Bank within the Prospects Group and the IMF within the European Department, where he was a member of the Working Group on Financial Stability. He contributed to analysis underlying the Global Economic Prospects Report as well as the maintenance of country macroeconomic frameworks feeding into the IMF World Economic Outlook.
Research Interests
- Macroeconomics
- Monetary Economics
- Inflation expectations
- Behavioral Macroeconomics
- International Finance
Research Experience
- Teaching Assistant, Geneva Graduate Institute, 2026-2027
- PhD Summer Intern, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Statistics Department, 2026
- Visiting PhD Fellow, UC Berkeley - Economics Department, 2026
- Macro Research Analyst, International Monetary Fund (IMF), European Department, 2022–2023.
- Macroeconomic Consultant, World Bank, Prospects Group, 2021–2022.
- Research Trainee, European Central Bank (ECB), DG-Economics, 2020–2021.
- Junior Consultant, OECD, Regulatory Policy Division, 2019–2020.
Relevant Publications and Works
- Borraccia, G. (2021) “Monetary Policy and Wage-Bargaining in the Eurozone: An Epistemological Break? An Analysis from the Perspective of the ECB,” LSE ‘Europe in Question’ Discussion Paper Series, 172.
- Borraccia, G. et al. (2023) “Financial Conditions In Europe: Dynamics, Drivers And Macroeconomic Implications,” International Monetary Fund (IMF), European Department (Departmental Paper).
- Borraccia, G. et al. (Upcoming) “Fintech Penetration and Monetary Policy Transmission in Brazil: Assessing The role of Forward Guidance”, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Statistics Department (Departmental Paper).
Fellowships, Grants And Awards
- Albert Gallatin Graduate Research Fellowship, 2026
- Research Scholarship, Geneva Graduate Institute, 2023-2027