Hi, I’m Lorenzo Maria Casale, a 4th year PhD candidate in the Department of Economics at the University of Zurich, where I hold a scholarship from the UBS Center for Economics in Society. Welcome to my website!

Born and raised in Rome, I hold my Bachelor’s and Master’s in Economics from Tor Vergata University. I joined the PhD program in 2022 after a pre-doc with Prof. Hans-Joachim Voth and Prof. Bruno Caprettini.

My research sits at the intersection of political economy and cultural economics, investigating how identity signals and expressive behavior shape political and economic outcomes. I combine causal inference with machine learning methods to study social coordination.

Current projects include: kinship networks in Italian politics and cultural expression in American high schools and politics.