Giulia Buccione

Giulia Buccione was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the King Center on Global Development. Her research interests lie at the intersection of development economics, environmental economics, and political economy. Most of her work studies how to design development interventions that align with local culture in the Middle East and North Africa. As part of this agenda, she is currently working on field experiments to test how culturally grounded policies can alleviate water scarcity in Egypt and Jordan, and religious tension in Lebanon. Buccione received her PhD in economics at Brown University.

King Center Supported Research

2024 - 2025 Academic Year | Global Development Research Funding Grant

Shame, Fear and Underinvestment in SRH for Teenage Girls (P1); Social Perceptions and Women's Political Participation (P2)

This study aims to uncover whether women in conservative societies support pro-women activists and policies more than they show publicly, but withhold support out of concern for appearing aligned with broad liberal views. In particular, women may worry that expressing public support for even moderate pro-women policies will signal alignment with broader liberal views, which are considered extreme relative to the conservative mainstream. We study this question in Jordan, where female representation and participation in politics remain very low.  Relevantly, efforts to appear mainstream may dampen public support and slow the implementation and enforcement of key gender equity enhancing policies, such as women-friendly public transportation, divorce rights, women's ability to pass citizenship to their children, and workplace protections, which are highly relevant for pro-women social change. We will also test whether there is room for counter-signaling - the idea that women and candidates might strategically communicate support for pro-women policies in subtle ways that distance them from broader liberal agendas, thus reducing the social risk while still advocating for specific reforms.