Zachary Porreca

ZACHARY PORRECA

zachary.porreca@unibocconi.it | +39 348 170 5338 | zachporreca.github.io | updated April 30, 2026

 

ACADEMIC POSITIONS

Magna Græcia University

Assistant Professor/Ricercatore (RTT) - Spring 2026-present

Affiliation: Dipartimento di Giurisprudenza, Economia e Sociologia (Department of Law, Economics, and Sociology)

 

Bocconi University

Research Fellow - Spring 2026-present

Post-Doctoral Research Fellow (Assegno di Ricerca) - Spring 2023-Spring 2026

Affiliation: Researcher at CLEAN Research Unit

 

OTHER AFFILIATIONS

Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Research Affiliate - Spring 2026-present

Centro Ricerche Economiche Nord Sud (CRENoS), Associated Researcher - Spring 2025-present

International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE), Affiliated Researcher - Fall 2024-present

Social Sciences Research Council (SSRC), SSRC-Arnold Ventures Criminal Justice Innovation Fellow - Fall 2024-present

Global Labor Organization (GLO), Fellow - Spring 2024-present

Centre on Economics, Finance and Regulation (BAFFI), Fellow - Fall 2023-present

Institute for European Policymaking (IEP@BU), Fellow - Fall 2023-present

 

EDUCATION

West Virginia University

Doctor of Philosophy, Economics - Spring 2023

Fields: Public and Urban/Regional Economics

Equipollenza riconosciuta dall’Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca

Master of Arts, Economics - Summer 2022

 

Bloomsburg University

Bachelor of Arts, Economics - Spring 2020

 

PUBLICATIONS

"Identifying the General Equilibrium Effects of Narcotics Enforcement" (Journal of Urban Economics, 2026)

"Economics of Criminal Governance" with Henry Thompson (in Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics, 2024)

"The Right to Counsel: Criminal Prosecution in 19th Century London" with Bryan McCannon (Economica, 2024)

"Bride Kidnapping and Informal Governance Institutions" (Contemporary Economic Policy, 2024)

"Gentrification, Gun Violence, and Drug Markets" (Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2023)

"Synthetic Difference-In-Differences Estimation With Staggered Treatment Timing" (Economics Letters, 2022)

"Assessing Ocean Temperature's Role in Fishery Production" (Journal of Bioeconomics, 2021)

 

WORKING PAPERS

"Murder in the Marketplace" (with V. Biagi and A. Cardazzi; BAFFI CAREFIN Centre Research Paper No. 239). Revisions requested at Public Choice.

"The Departed: Italian Migration and the American Mafia" (with M. Anelli and P. Pinotti; CESifo Working Paper No. 12364, CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP20972; Rockwool Foundation Berlin Discussion Paper No. 165/25). Revisions requested at Review of Economic Studies.

"The Post-Fentanyl Urbanization of the Opioid Epidemic" (with A. Kucera and A. Scavette; IZA Discussion Paper No. 18562)

 

OTHER WRITING

"Se il Fentanyl arriva in Europa" (written in Italian) (Eco Rivista, 2024)

"Precision policing: The Kensington Initiative's targeted approach to combating the opioid epidemic" (Commentary for the Niskanen Center, 2024)

"Policy Brief - Inelastic Demand, Rational Consumers, and Drug Policy" (IEP@BU Policy Brief, 2024)

 

CONFERENCE AND WORKSHOP PRESENTATIONS (INCLUDING SCHEDULED)

2026 - American Economic Association/Allied Social Science Association; Bolzano Applied Microeconomics Workshop; Texas Economics of Crime Workshop

2025 - Alpine Population Conference; Workshop on the Economics of Crime for Junior Scholars; IBEO: Urban and Regional Economics; Dondena-Cornell Gathering

2024 - Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management; Southern Economic Association; IBEO: Urban and Regional Economics; Workshop on the Econ of Crime for Junior Scholars; Workshop on the Economics of Organized Crime; Bocconi Summer Crime Workshop; Texas Economics of Crime Workshop; Bocconi Crime Before Christmas Workshop

2023 - Brucchi Luchino Workshop; Southern Economic Association; Bocconi University Summer Crime Workshop; Society of Labor Economists

2022 - Bocconi University Crime Before Christmas Workshop; Southern Economic Association; Ethics, Law, and Social Science of Self-Defense and Firearms Workshop at Saint Anselm College; Slovak Economic Association; Eastern Economic Association; Institute for Humane Studies GradCon; Association of Private Enterprise Education; Texas Economics of Crime Workshop

2021 - 24Hr Conference on Global Organized Crime; North American Association of Fisheries Economists

 

INVITED SEMINAR PRESENTATIONS (INCLUDING SCHEDULED)

2026 - University of Kentucky; Konkuk University

2025 - City, University of London; University of Southampton; Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia; DataLab of the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office; Virtual Crime Economics Seminar Series (ViCE); University of Pavia

2024 - Brown University; Applied Young Economists Webinar; Virtual Crime Economics Seminar Series (ViCE); University of Bari Aldo Moro; University of Bolzano; Young Irish Economists Seminar Series (Trinity College); University of Sassari

2023 - Johannes Kepler University Linz; Masaryk University

 

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Magna Græcia University

Valutazione delle politiche pubbliche (Evaluation of public policies) - Spring 2026

Instructor of Record/Lecturer, 36 hours, laurea magistrale/master's degree in Public Administration

 

West Virginia University

ECON 201: Introductory Microeconomics - Spring 2023

Instructor of Record/Lecturer, 45 hours, Online and asynchronous

ECON 225 - Elementary Business and Economics Statistics - Fall 2022

Instructor of Record/Lecturer, 45 hours

Undergraduate Research Mentor - Summer 2021

Advancing Diversity in Geriatric Research program

 

TEACHING EXPERIENCE - GUEST LECTURES

Brown University

Narcotics Enforcement in the Era of the Opiate Epidemic (Undergraduate level) - Fall 2024

 

Bocconi University

Economics of Crime - Drug Market Disruptions (Masters level) - Spring 2024, 2025, 2026

 

University of Sassari

Practical Guide to Difference-in-Differences Designs (Masters level) - Spring 2024

 

Masaryk University

Labor Economics - Wage Distribution (Undergraduate level) - Spring 2023

Staggered Difference-in-Differences Designs (Masters level) - Spring 2023

 

TEACHING EXPERIENCE - WORKSHOP

Center for Free Enterprise Summer Empirical Workshop

Text Analysis and Data Basics in R - Summer 2022

 

University of Sassari and University of Cagliari

Text Analysis with Economic Applications Workshop - Spring 2022

 

HONORS, AWARDS, AND GRANTS (AS PI OR CO-PI)

Arnold Ventures Planning Grant (2026) - $99,575

Cosmos x IHS AI-Accelerated Scholarship Grant (2025) - $4,000

Arnold Ventures Planning Grant (2025) - $98,038

Arnold Ventures Grant (2024) - $24,670; For organizing a small workshop

Institute for Humane Studies Grant (2024) - Short Term Residency Grant, $3600

Institute for Humane Studies Grant (2024) - Hayek Fund, $1000

ICLE Law & Economics Fellow (2024) - $2500

Institute for Humane Studies Grant (2023) - Hayek Fund, $750

Institute for Humane Studies Fellowship (2023) - Summer Research Fellowship, $6000

Mercatus Center Fellowship (2022) - Oskar Morgenstern Fellow, $2500

Institute for Humane Studies Fellowship (2022) - Publication Accelerator Grant, $5000

APEE Young Scholars Program (2022)

Center for Free Enterprise Grant (2021) - $800

Institute for Humane Studies Fellowship (2021) - Daniel Searle Fellow, $2500

Phi Kappa Phi Graduate Fellowship (2020) - $8500

Adam Smith Award in Economics (2020) - Bloomsburg University award

Margaret Minner Memorial Scholarship (2019)

 

INVITED EVENTS AS A PARTICIPANT

Arnold Ventures Bridge Event: Fentanyl Epidemic - Fall 2025

Arnold Ventures Bridge Event: Capacity Crisis in Corrections - Spring 2025

Partnering to Transform Corrections Culture in North Dakota - Summer 2024

Dondena-Cornell Gathering - Summer 2024

Institute for Humane Studies: Economic and Human Costs of Incarceration Research Discussion - Spring 2024

Institute for Humane Studies: Policing Reform Research Discussion - Fall 2023

University of Michigan CJARS Training Workshop - Fall 2023

International Center for Law and Economics: Big Ideas Workshop on the Economics of Information - Fall 2023

Institute for Humane Studies Summer Seminar Series - Summer 2022

American Institute for Economic Research - Spring 2022

Harwood Graduate Colloquium

 

VISITING PERIODS

City University, London in London, UK (Spring 2025); Brown University PPE Center in Providence, Rhode Island, USA (Fall 2024); University of Sassari in Sardegna, Italy (Spring 2024); Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic (Spring 2023)

 

SERVICE TO THE PROFESSION

Journal Referee - American Economic Journal: Economic Policy; Applied Economics; Advances in Applied Sociology; Contemporary Economic Policy; Crime & Delinquency; Economic Inquiry; Explorations in Economic History; Journal of Policy Analysis and Management; Journal of Quantitative Criminology; Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy; Journal of Place Management and Development; Management Science; Marine Resource Economics; Oxford Economic Papers; PLOS Complex Systems; Public Choice; Southern Economic Journal; Urban Studies

R Package Contributor - In bacondecomp package, implementation of fixest::feols processes

R Package Author - "staggeredSynthDid", Staggered treatment timing for Synthetic DiD; "lpdid", Local Projections DiD Estimator, w/ Alex Cardazzi

Conference Session Organizer - Southern Economic Association Conference 2024 (4 sessions)

Workshop Organizer - Workshop on the Impacts of the Opiate Epidemic (Fall 2024)

 

MEMBERSHIPS (PAST AND PRESENT)

American Economic Association; Eastern Economic Association; Association of Private Enterprise Education; Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management; North American Association of Fisheries Economists; Southern Economics Association; Western Economics Association

 

TECHNICAL SKILLS

R, Julia, LaTeX, Textual Analysis, Spatial Analysis, Causal Inference, High Performance Computing

 

REFERENCES

Dr. Paolo Pinotti - Bocconi University - paolo.pinotti@unibocconi.it

Dr. Bryan McCannon - Illinois Wesleyan University - bmccanno@iwu.edu

Dr. Jennifer Doleac - Arnold Ventures - jdoleac@arnoldventures.org

Dr. Analisa Packham - Vanderbilt University - analisa.packham@vanderbilt.edu

Dr. Gianmarco Daniele - Bocconi University - gianmarco.daniele@unibocconi.it

Dr. Massimo Anelli - Bocconi University - massimo.anelli@unibocconi.it

 

LANGUAGES

English (native); Italian (intermediate; Certificazione PLIDA CEFR B1)