CCA Inauguration Ceremony Academic Year 2025-2026

Carlo Alberto Medal Lecture: “Transportation, Infrastructure and Trade Disruptions”
Giulia Brancaccio, Assistant Professor of Economics, New York University Stern School of Business; Recipient to the 2025 Carlo Alberto Medal

Abstract: Transportation systems and infrastructure form the quiet engine of economic activity: they sustain trade, connect producers and consumers, and shape the resilience of local economies to shocks. In this lecture, I discuss the frictions that arise in these systems and their impact on international trade, welfare, and economic resilience. I will show how the functioning of the transportation sector distorts global shipping flows, propagates shocks across space, and how the introduction of a centralizing platform alters market outcomes. I then extend these insights to the design and performance of infrastructure itself: first, through a framework that combines queueing-based port technology with demand estimation to assess in which ports infrastructure investment delivers the highest returns and how spillovers across ports shape optimal spending. If investing in infrastructure is so valuable, why don’t local governments do it? I present evidence from drinking water systems showing how political incentives and limited oversight can lead to persistent underinvestment even in essential environmental infrastructure. Together, these examples illustrate how frictions—whether technological, spatial, or institutional—shape both the operation of critical systems and the policies needed to improve them.

Opening Addresses
Giorgio Barba Navaretti, President, Fondazione Collegio Carlo Alberto
Marco Gilli, President, Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo
Cristina Prandi, Rector, University of Turin

Introduction
Paolo Ghirardato, Dean, Fondazione Collegio Carlo Alberto