Before joining the LSE Riccardo was a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute inFlorence. He has been visiting scholar at a number of universities, including the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard Universityand the School of Public Policy, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Riccardo has provided academic advice to, amongstothers, the European Investment Bank, the European Parliament, the European Commission (DG Regional Policy), the Inter‐American Development Bank and various regional governments. His research is focused on Regional Economic Development andGrowth, Innovation, Multinational Firms and the analysis and evaluation of European Union development policies.