About Me

I am an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Southern California and a CESifo Research Affiliate.

My primary research interests are in international economics and macroeconomics, particularly in the areas of market structure, market power, firm-to-firm trade, and development.

Email: morlacco@usc.edu

My CV is available here.

Publications

“Labor Market Power, Self-Employment, and Development”, with Francesco Amodio and Pamela Medina
American Economic Review, 2025, 115(9): 3014–57.
Final Draft / Replication Material / Vox Dev
“Liquidity as Competitive Advantage: The Role of Intangibles”, with Carlo Altomonte, Tommaso Sonno, and Domenico Favoino
Journal of International Economics, 2025, 158: 140168.
Final Draft / Replication Material
“Monetary Policy, Customer Capital, and Market Power”, with David Zeke
Journal of Monetary Economics, 2021, 121: 116–134.
Final Draft

Working Papers

“Two-Sided Market Power in Firm-to-Firm Trade”, with Vanessa Alviarez, Michele Fioretti, and Ken Kikkawa · 2026
R&R, American Economic Review (2nd round)
NBER Working Paper / ProMarket
“Concentration and Markups in International Trade”, with Vanessa Alviarez, Michele Fioretti, and Ken Kikkawa · 2025
SUERF Brief
“Market Power in Input Markets: Theory and Evidence from French Manufacturing”, with Etienne Guigue
New version in progress
Latest Draft (2020)

Other Publications

“The Eaton–Kortum Model”, with Robert Dekle
In Elgar Encyclopedia of International Trade, edited by Priyaranjan Jha and Devashish Mitra, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2026.

Selected Work in Progress

“Improving the Measurement of Productivity Dispersion and Misallocation in Developing Countries”, with Vittorio Bassi, Julian Duggan, Tommaso Porzio, and Esau Tugume
“Market Boundaries in Buyer-Supplier Networks”, with Vanessa Alviarez, Michele Fioretti, and Ken Kikkawa
“Variable Demand Elasticity, Markups, and Pass-Through”, with Costas Arkolakis
Earlier Version (2017)