2026-2027 Law and Business Entrepreneurship Fellow

Alessandro Tacconelli  

Alessandro Tacconelli is a Jacobson Fellow at NYU School of Law and a doctoral candidate at the Center for Law and Economics at ETH Zurich. His research lies at the intersection of law, behavioral science, economics, and artificial intelligence. Using experimental, computational, and doctrinal methods, he studies how individuals and artificial agents respond to legal rules, how emerging technologies affect legal decision-making and standards of liability, and how the law can govern increasingly autonomous AI systems, with a particular focus on machine crime and the legal treatment of harmful conduct by artificial agents.

Before beginning his doctoral studies, Alessandro earned a Master of Behavioral and Decision Sciences from the University of Pennsylvania and a law degree, with highest honors, from Bocconi University. He previously worked as a legal associate at PwC Italy, advising clients on M&A and other corporate transactions. He also advises technology start-up projects through the University of Zurich’s Digital Society Initiative and has co-taught courses in contract design, social norms, business strategy and corporate governance, and experimental methods.

Education

• ETH Zurich, Center for Law and Economics, Doctoral Candidate, 2022–Present
• University of Pennsylvania, Master of Behavioral and Decision Sciences, 2022
• Bocconi University School of Law, Law Degree, cum laude, 2018

Publications

•  Aczel, B. Szaszi…A. Tacconelli…B.A. Nosek, “Investigating the Analytical Robustness of the Social and Behavioural Sciences,” Nature 652, 135–142 (2026).
• A. Tacconelli, J. Merane, A. Nielsen, K. Tobia, B. Hackanson, A. Stremitzer, “How Following Medical Artificial Intelligence Advice Can Mitigate Malpractice Liability: Cross-National Insights from a Randomized Trial,” Journal of Nuclear Medicine (2026)..

Works in Progress

• “Foundations of Machine Criminology: A Law-and-Economics Case for a New Field.”
• “FRAUDBENCH: A Legal Evaluation of AI Deception” (with K. Wei, et al.).
• “Criminal Machine Behavior: A Benchmark” (with I. Schlag et al.)
• “Framing Rules: Rights by Permission and Rights by Exemption” (with A. Stremitzer and A. Leibovitch).