Mirko Draca       

                Contact Details:                              Research  Interests:

        Department of Economics                             Labor economics
        University of Warwick                               Applied Micro          
        Coventry CV4 7AL 

        email: m.draca "at" warwick.ac.uk

Welcome to my web page. I'm a Lecturer ('Assistant Professor') at Warwick University and Research Associate at the Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics. For 2012-2013 I am also a Network Fellow with the Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard.   My Phd studies were at the UCL Department of Economics.

Currently, I am working on two main topics.

Firstly, I am looking at the impact of defense spending on innovation in the US using a long-run panel of listed firms. The first paper from this project ("Reagan's Innovation Dividend?") has now been posted.

Secondly, I am working on the 'political labor market', that is, the analysis of the labor market for lobbyists and political staffers. A first paper on this topic is available below  ("Revolving Door Lobbyists").      

Recent Research

"Reagan's Innovation Dividend? Technological Impacts of the 1980s US Defense Build-Up"
February 2nd, 2012.
Primary Job Market Paper. Ongoing updates.

"Revolving Door Lobbyists" (with Jordi Blanes i Vidal & Christian Fons-Rosen).
Accepted for Publication, American Economic Review. See an LSE video about the paper here.

"Panic on the Streets of London" (with Steve Machin & Robert Witt).
American Economic Review (2011), Published.     
We look at the impact of police on crime in the context of the July 2005 terror attacks. With thanks to The Smiths.

"Minimum Wages and Firm Profitability" (with Steve Machin & John Van Reenen).
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics (2011), Published.
A study of some firm-level impacts of the UK minimum wage.

"Trade Induced Technical Change?" (with Nick Bloom and John Van Reenen).    
Mimeo, August 23rd 2011.
Firm-level data on 12+ countries, 4 technology measures, a new European quota database,22 tables, 3 figures and 70 pages. You can see my blood drip off the page. Read it and weep. See coverage at The Economist.