Portrait of Pietro Campa

Pietro Campa

Postdoctoral Researcher, Rockwool Foundation Berlin

I am a labor economist studying education, social interactions, and intergenerational mobility.

I completed my Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Geneva in September 2025, under the supervision of Giacomo De Giorgi and Frederic Robert-Nicoud.

My research focuses on how early-life environments, peer interactions, and family networks shape labor market outcomes and lifetime success.

I visited the University of California, Berkeley, hosted by Enrico Moretti, in Spring 2024, and I received the Best TA Award from the Institute of Economics and Econometrics at the University of Geneva in November 2024.

Job Market Paper

No Kid Is an Island: Peer Effects and Intergenerational Mobility

Recipient of the Young Economist Award at the Austrian Economic Association Meeting 2026.

Economic inequalities persist from one generation to the next. This paper studies whether children's social interactions mirror and amplify parental disparities. Exploiting within-school, across-cohort variation in schoolmates' parental background among Danish high school students, I estimate the causal effect of peer background on adult earnings. A one-dollar increase in average schoolmates' parental earnings raises adult earnings by eight cents, an effect equal to 42 percent of the parent-child earnings correlation. The evidence suggests that former schoolmates remain connected in labor market networks, join peers' firms, and use school connections as outside options to secure higher wages.

Preview figure for the job market paper The project links school peer composition to later-life earnings through peer effects and labor-market networks.
No Kid Is an Island No Kid Is an Island: peer effects and intergenerational mobility.
Born to Be Subprime Born to Be (Sub)Prime: inherited credit histories and early credit access.
Values for Grandchildren Values for Grandchildren: grandparental interactions and lifetime income.

Published

Born to Be (Sub)Prime: An Exploratory Analysis.
with H. Bach, G. De Giorgi, J. Nosal and D. Pietrobon. AEA Papers and Proceedings, 2023, 113: 166-71.

Ongoing

Values for Grandchildren: The Role of Grandparents in Intergenerational Transmission of Income.
with G. De Giorgi, M. Prado and B. Severgnini.
All You Need Is a Card: Long-Term Impact of Early-Life Credit Access.
with H. Bach, G. De Giorgi, J. Nosal and D. Pietrobon.
Pay Transparency and Firm Wage Premia.
with F. Meluzzi.

Policy Reports

4th Migration Observatory Report: Immigrant Integration in Europe.
with T. Frattini.