In Memory of Francesca Rossi
(Address to the 11th Italian Congress of Econometrics and Empirical Economics)
Dear Francesca,
surviving you is a burden no one should ever have to carry.
And yet, fate—or perhaps God—has left that burden to us.
With your passing, we didn’t just lose a brilliant colleague, or a generous friend.
With you, an entire era in our academic life came to a close — a time when science
spoke many languages, moved confidently across borders,
and careers could still be shaped by curiosity, by freedom, by respect earned on merit.
That world shaped you. And through you, we came to know its spirit.
Born in a small town, you rose to prominence among the world’s leading institutions in Econometrics,
never losing your composure, your elegance, or your integrity.
You worked with giants — Peter C.B. Phillips, Peter Robinson, Offer Lieberman — but always on your
own terms, never mistaking authority for self-importance.
Your network spanned the globe, but it was your quiet intellect and understated presence that gave it depth.
That world no longer exists — at least, not in the way you moved
through it so naturally. Today, academic freedom is under strain.
Independent thinking must be defended, justified, explained.
Forging an independent path now takes clarity, resilience — and,
at times, a certain solitude. The very solitude you sought out, as a
true daughter of the mountains — in silence, as a space for freedom
and reflection.
This is why your absence weighs so heavily. Because you embodied one of the
finest traits of our discipline: the ability to live within complexity.
Econometrics, after all, isn’t only about rigour and technique.
It’s about navigating the tension between order and chaos, between
models and noise, between structure and surprise. It’s a science
that mirrors life itself: hard to explain, impossible to reduce.
And you moved through that complexity with grace and strength,
never losing your desire to face it fully
Thanks to Rita Levi Montalcini Action, you returned to Italy.
And thanks to that, many of us had the privilege — and the joy —
of working with you, learning from you, and simply sharing time together.
Your family, in a message I hold dear, thanked those who appreciated and respected you.
But today, it is we who owe you our gratitude — for all that you gave us,
and for the legacy you’ve left behind.
Our ability to endure, to keep searching, to stay true to a higher
vision of research — that will be our way of saying
Thank you, Francesca.