Dr Anna Rita Bennato

BSc and MA (University of Roma 'Sapienza'); MSc and PhD (University of Rome 'Tor Vergata')

  • Senior Lecturer in Economics
  • Open Research Lead
  • Co-Leader, Behavioural Decision Sciences research interest group

Expertise: applied microeconomics; industrial economics; behavioural economics.

Research groups and centres

Anna Rita is a Senior Lecturer in Economics with research interest in industrial organization and behavioural economics. Before joining Loughborough University, Anna Rita worked at Oxford Brookes University, after she was a Post Doc Research Fellow at the ESRC Centre for Competition Policy, University of East Anglia. Previously, while she was completing her PhD, Anna Rita worked as Teaching Fellow at the University of Bristol. For her Bachelor (Laurea) degree in Economics she studied at 'La Sapienza' University of Rome, before moving at 'Tor Vergata' University of Rome, where she obtained her MSc in International Economics, and PhD in Economics.

Anna Rita’s research interests span across different areas of applied microeconomics with a focus on industrial organization. Within this field, she has been focused on firms’ anticompetitive behaviour in response to government interventions and firms’ innovation strategies. Recently, with the aim to understand social preferences and cooperative strategies, Anna Rita has also turned her attention to behavioural and experimental economics.

Refereed journal articles

  • 'Does Regulation drive International Research Cooperation? Evidence from the Pharmaceutical Sector', (2018), The World Economy, forthcoming, (with L. Magazzini)
  • 'Pharmaceutical innovation and parallel trade', (2014), International Journal of Industrial Organization, 33(3), pp. 83-92, (with T. Valletti).

Policy reports

  • 'Feasibility study on the microeconomic impact of enforcement of competition policies on innovation', (2017), report commissioned by Directorate-General for European Competition Commission, (with S. Davies, F. Mariuzzo and P. Ormosi).