Close-ups

Let’s talk about you: what is your background, what do you teach, and what are your research interests?
My name is Marcella Lucchetta. At Ca’ Foscari I teach Monetary and Financial Policy as well as Monetary and Financial Economics, Monetary Economics (in English) and Economic Literacy. I research the behaviour of financial markets and I am interested in Global Risk: my main paper is "Forecasting Tail Risk", along with other forthcoming papers on risks in general (for example, Migration and Covid19).

Tell us about your academic path.
I came back to Italy in late 2013, after an extraordinary research period at the International Monetary Fund (Washington D.C.) in the Research Department, several experiences at the European Central Bank (Frankfurt) and the European University Institute in Fiesole. I worked with the National Research Agency for Luxembourg and was a Visiting Fellow at the prestigious Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School. However, I have always kept in touch with Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.

Can you offer any advice to researchers in the early stages of their careers?
Believing in what you are doing is essential — research is passion, love for the unknown. It can bring you a lot of joy, but it is also a lot of hard work, and disappointments often plague the careers of even the greatest researchers. The drive to do this job is a mission, you don't ‘become a researcher’ — you always improve, but it is an attitude that makes you forget about all the hard work when you achieve your result. Dedication to research is a deep feeling that cannot be 'taught'. A good supervisor guides researchers, but the choice to start is theirs alone.