Elena Lucchese is a Ph.D. student in Economics at the University of Bologna (Italy). She is currently doing research at Stanford University in the Center for Health Policy and the Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research (CHP/PCOR). Her research interests are applied micro-economics, health economics and economics of education. In 2016, she was awarded a "Young Researcher Best Paper Award" by the Italian Health Economics Association for her work on the Effect of Ambulance Response Time on Cardiovascular Severity. In 2014, she also received a 14,000 euros grant from Eurizon Capital SGR as a Principal Investigator for her research project on the Efficiency of Public Spending in Europe. She is the president of the association "L'Osteria Volante", funded by the University of Padova, which promotes debates on economics, politics, and environmental issues (www.losteriavolante.it).