![Luigi Pascali portrait](https://bse.eu/sites/default/files/styles/bgse_image_content_image/public/luigi-pascali-640x400.jpg?itok=vVyeH6Ej)
Professor Luigi Pascali (UPF and BSE) has been awarded a Leonard Grant by the BBVA Foundation. Leonardo Grants support mid-career researchers whose work demonstrates "highly innovative scientific, technological or cultural production."
Pascali's project is called "Coordinating against the mafia: experimental evidence from an anti-extortion policy in Sicily." As he explained in an interview at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, he will analyze why businesses in Sicily are not able to coordinate and jointly refuse to pay the “pizzo,” an average monthly payment of about 880 euros that is extorted from them by the mafia.