Martina F. Ferracane
Email: martina.ferracane@ecipe.org
Mobile: +39 3293638728
Areas of Expertise: EU Single Market Digital Economy

Martina F. Ferracane is a Research Associate at ECIPE. Her work focuses on digital trade and cross-border data flows. She is particularly interested in technological advancements such as Internet of Things and 3D printing, including in the context of long-term societal and economic development. Previously, she worked at the European Commission (DG DEVCO) and at UN-ESCAP in Bangkok, where she focused on trade policy and protectionism trends.
Martina is also actively engaged in social entrepreneurship. She is the founder and president of Fab Lab Western Sicily, a non-profit organisation which is bringing digital fabrication to Sicilian schools. In addition, she is managing the Brussels Entrepreneurship and Innovation meetup group and she recently spent few months in a Fab Lab in Brazil to learn digital fabrication techniques. Martina has also co-founded a start-up in the area of 3D printing and dentistry.
Since May 2016, Martina is a PhD student in Law and Economics at Hamburg University, where she is specialising in the area of cross-border flow of data. She holds a Master’s degree with honours in Economic Internationalisation, Integration and International Trade from University of Valencia in Spain – where she was also awarded a prize for academic excellence – and gained her Bachelor’s degree with honours in Economics and Institutions of International and European Integration from ‘La Sapienza’ University of Rome. She also attended a semester of courses in international economics and monetary policy at Stockholm University.
DTE Project
Patterns of Trade Restrictiveness in Online Platforms: A First Look
This paper develops a digital platform restrictiveness index for 64 countries based on ECIPE’s Digital Trade Estimates (DTE) database and the Digital Trade Restrictiveness Index (DTRI). We identify specific restrictions that affect online platforms with a focus on online search, e-commerce and social media. The results show that both OECD and non-OECD countries show high levels of trade restrictions on online platforms. Moreover, some of the most restricted...
DTE Project
Do Data Policy Restrictions Inhibit Trade in Services?
This paper examines whether restrictive data policies impact trade in services over the internet. We have collected comparable information on a variety of policy measures that regulate data for a wide group of countries for the years 2006-2016. This information is compiled in a weighted index that assesses the restrictiveness of these countries’ data policies. We distinguish between policies regulating the cross-border movement of data and policies regulating the...
DTE Project
Do Data Policy Restrictions Impact the Productivity Performance of Firms and Industries?
This paper examines how policies regulating the cross-border movement and domestic use of electronic data on the internet impact the productivity of firms in sectors relying on electronic data. In doing so, we collect regulatory information on a group of developed economies and create an index that measures the regulatory restrictiveness of each country’s data policies. The index is based on observable policy measures that explicitly inhibit the cross-border...
ECIPE Policy Briefs
The Geopolitics of Online Taxation in Asia-Pacific – Digitalisation, Corporate Tax Base and The Role of Governments
Governments use taxation as a policy instrument to create a favourable business climate in the face of competition from neighbouring countries. Tech companies appear to be bearing the brunt of the blame associated with this geopolitics of tax, even though it is actually governments who set tax law and determine the international allocation of profit. The prevailing public perception that tech companies pay less corporate taxes is a myth: A comparison of the...
Media Mention
DTRI used in WTO’s 2020 World Trade Report on “Government policies to promote innovation in the digital age”
ECIPE's DTRI used in the analysis for the WTO World Trade Report...
Media Mention
Global Digital Trade 1: Market Opportunities and Key Foreign Trade Restrictions
Digital Trade Estimates Project Database used in USITC...
Media Mention
Digital technology diffusion: A matter of capabilities, incentives or both?
Digital Trade Restrictiveness Index used in OECD...
Media Mention
World Trade Report 2018: The Future of World Trade: How Digital Technologies are Transforming Global Commerce
Digital Trade Restrictiveness Index used in WTO...
Article
The Cost of Data Protectionism
Erik van der Marel and Martina Ferracane write on...
Article
How data localisation wipes out the security of your data
Martina F. Ferracane writes about data security at Security...
Article
Una testimonianza da Bruxelles, la marsalese Martina Ferracane racconta: “Colpiti per ricordarci che non siamo al sicuro”
Martina F. Ferracane writes about the terrorist attack in Brussels (in...
Article
A race against time: New data protection rules in the internet era
Martina F. Ferracane’s blog on GDPR published by Vocal...
Book or Paper
Regulating personal data: Linking different models to digital services trade
Erik van der Marel and Martina Ferracane write for...
Book or Paper
Do data policy restrictions inhibit trade in services?
Erik van der Marel and Martina Ferracane published their work on data restrictions and digital trade in the Review of World...
Book or Paper
Regulating Personal Data: Data Models and Digital Services Trade
Martina Ferracane and Erik van der Marel explore the different global models on personal data and their links to digital services...
Book or Paper
Online Platform Restrictiveness
Erik van der Marel and Martina Ferracane publish on online platform trade restrictiveness in The World...
Speech or Presentation
Cyber Security: DOs and DON’Ts
Martina F. Ferracane talks about the DOs and DON'Ts of cyber security at QED Brussels - June...
Speech or Presentation
ITA: What’s next?
Martina F. Ferracane speaks at the ITA Symposium (June 2017,...
Speech or Presentation
EPPTALKS in Malta: 1school-1FabLab initiative
Martina F. Ferracane speaks at the EPP Congress 2017 in...
Speech or Presentation
OECD Economic Outlook: The domestic impact of trade policies
Martina F. Ferracane speaks at the EPSR about trade in the digital...