Angelo Mazza

Education

Ph.D., University of Catania, 2000
Laurea cum laude in Economics and Business, 1997.

Research Interests
My research has focused on the use of (computationally intensive) statistical methods for analyzing human populations. Main research topics embrace segregation, migrations, and mortality. Other research interests are in item response theory, and in its application to the study of human social behaviour.
My most recent interests are in spatial demography and the use of GIS and spatial analysis to study population.

Recent publications (since 2011)

2021

• Ajovalasit S, Dorgali V, Mazza A, d’Onofrio A, Manfredi P, Evidence of disorientation towards immunization on online social media after contrasting political communication on vaccines. Results from an analysis of Twitter data in Italy. PLOS ONE, Vol. 16, DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0253569

2020

• Mazza A, Exploiting Fine-Scale Data in Modeling Migrants’ Settlement Patterns in Europe Spatial Demography, Vol. 8, DOI:10.1007/s40980-020-00073-4
• Scrofani L, Mazza A, Mucciardi M Trasformazioni urbane e distribuzione spaziale degli immigrati stranieri a Messina GEOTEMA , Supplemento 2020, pp.75-88
• Mazza A, Punzo A. Mixtures of multivariate contaminated normal regression models. Statistical Papers, DOI:10.1007/s00362-017-0964-y. Impact factor 0.727

2019

• Mazza A, Punzo A. Modeling Household Income with Contaminated Unimodal Distributions. In A. Petrucci, F Racioppi, R Verde, New Statistical Developments in Data Science, forthcoming, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.
• Mazza A, Battisti M, Ingrassia S, Punzo A. Modeling return to education in heterogeneous populations. An application to Italy. In Greselin I, Deldossi L, Vichi M (Eds.), Advances in Statistical Models for Data Analysis, Studies in Classification, Data Analysis, and Knowledge Organization, forthcoming, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.

2018

• Punzo A, Mazza A, Maruotti. A Fitting insurance and economic data with outliers: a flexible approach based on finite mixtures of contaminated gamma distributions. Journal of Applied Statistics, (forthcoming). Impact factor 0.664
• Mazza A, Strozza S. SICILIA, MORDI E FUGGI. Uno sguardo da una delle porte di accesso all’Europa: immigrazione, accoglienza e relazioni sociali in Sicilia e a Catania. Limes. Rivista Italiana di Geopolitica, 01/2018, p.175-182.
• Mazza A, Punzo A, Ingrassia S. flexCWM: A Flexible Framework for Cluster-Weighted Models. Journal of Statistical Software, Vol.86 (2) p. 1-30. Impact factor 22.7
• Punzo A, Mazza A, McNicholas P D. ContaminatedMixt: An R Package for Fitting Parsimonious Mixtures of Multivariate Contaminated Normal Distributions. Journal of Statistical Software, vol.85 (10), p.1-25; Impact factor 22.7

2017

• Mazza A, Punzo A. Residential segregation of foreign immigrants in Naples. Spatial Demography, DOI:10.1007/s40980-017-0036-x
• Mazza A, Punzo A. Dealing with Omitted Answers in a Survey on Social Integration of Immigrants in Italy. Mathematical Population Studies.;An International Journal of Mathematical Demography, vol. 24 (2), p.84-102. Impact factor 0.444
• Mazza A. Dealing with the bias of the dissimilarity index of segregation,;RIEDS,;LXXI, n. 2, p.25-34
• Mucciardi M, Altavilla AM, Mazza A. Analysis of the residential patterns of foreign immigrants in Catania using GWR modelling. RIEDS,;LXXI, n. 2, p.161-169

2016

• Mazza A, Punzo A. Spatial attraction in migrants' settlement patterns in the city of Catania, Demographic Research, vol. 35, p.117-138. Impact factor 1.320
• Gabrielli G, Mazza A, Strozza S. Immigrants’ settlement patterns in the city of Naples. Proceedings of the 48th scientific meeting of the Italian Statistical Society

2015

• Mazza A, Punzo A. On the upward bias of the dissimilarity index and its corrections. Sociological Methods & Research, vol. 44, p.;80-107 .;Impact factor 3.604
• Mazza A, Punzo A. Bivariate discrete beta Kernel graduation of mortality data. Lifetime Data Analysis, vol. 21, p.;419-433 .;Impact factor 0.823
• Busetta A, Mazza A, Stranges M Residential segregation of foreigners: an analysis of the Italian city of Palermo. GENUS, vol. 71, p. 177-198
• Baganato;L, De Capitani L, Mazza A, Punzo A SDD: An R Package for Serial Dependence Diagrams Journal of Statistical Software, vol. 64, p.;1-19 .;Impact factor 22.7

2014

• Altavilla AM, Mazza A, Punzo A. A comparison of bias correction methods for the dissimilarity index. RIEDS, vol. LXVIII, p. 159-166
• Altavilla AM, Mazza A, Punzo A. An R snippet for adaptive beta kernel graduation. An application to Italian mortality data. RIEDS, vol. LXVIII, p. 7-14
• Mazza A, Punzo A. DBKGrad: An R Package for Mortality Rates Graduation by Discrete Beta Kernel Techniques.Journal of Statistical Software, vol. 57, p. 1-18. Impact factor 22.7
• Altavilla AM, Mazza A, Monaco;L .;Effetti;dell’invecchiamento;della;popolazione;sulla;spesa;del;sistema;sanitario;nazionale. RIEDS, vol. XLVIII, p. 1-9
• Mazza A, Punzo A, McGuire;B .;KernSmoothIRT: An R Package for Kernel Smoothing in Item Response Theory.Journal of Statistical Software, vol. 58, p.;1-34 .;Impact factor 22.7
• Johnson J, Mazza;A .;Using Social Network Analysis to measure and enhance integration among non-profit organizations. In Catalfo P, Experiences in monitoring social networks of non-profit organizations. p. 19-37, Roma: Aracne Editrice

2013

• Altavilla AM, Mazza A, Monaco;L .;Incidenza;della;dinamica;demografica;sul;mercato;del;lavoro. RIEDS, vol. LXVII, p. 7-14
• Mazza A, Punzo A. Graduation;by;Adaptive Discrete Beta Kernels. In: Giusti A, Ritter G, Vichi M, Classification;and;Data Mining. Studies in classification, data analysis, and knowledge organization, p. 243-250, Berlin:Springer-Verlag
• Mazza A, Punzo A. Using the Variation Coefficient for Adaptive Discrete Beta Kernel Graduation. In Giudici P, Ingrassia S, Vichi M, Statistical Models for Data Analysis. Studies in classification, data analysis, and knowledge organization,;p. 225-232, Springer International Publishing Switzerland

2012

• Altavilla AM, Mazza A, Punzo A. Beta kernel graduation of mortality data in R. An application to the Enna province. RIEDS, vol. LXVI, p. 15-22
• Altavilla AM, Galizia F, Mazza A.;Indicatori;di;carico;demografico;ed;invecchiamento;della;popolazione. RIEDS, vol. LXVI – N. 1, p. 7-14
• Di Liberto E, Mazza A, Mercatanti L. Le;recenti;strategie;insediative;della;comunità;rumena;in Sicilia. Geotema, vol. 43-44-45, p. 149-155
• Altavilla AM, Galizia F, Mazza A. L’invecchiamento;della;popolazione;nei;paesi;del;bacino;del Mediterraneo. RIEDS, vol. LXVI, p. 7-14
• Altavilla AM, Mazza A. On the analysis of immigrant settlement patterns using quadrat counts. The case of the city of Catania (Italy). Advances and Applications in Statistics, vol. 29, p. 111-123
• Altavilla AM, Mazza A, Punzo A. On the upward bias of the dissimilarity index. RIEDS, vol. LXVI – N. 1, p. 15-20
• Altavilla AM, Mazza A, Mercatanti L. Two solitudes:;Singalesi;e Tamil;tra;Catania e Palermo. Geotema, vol. 43-44-45, p. 52-57

2011

• Altavilla AM, Mazza A, Punzo A. Alternative variants of the Heligman-Pollard model. RIEDS, vol. LXV, p. 5-12
• Altavilla AM, Galizia F, Mazza A, Scrofani L. Catania e Palermo, dal decentramento alla ricentralizzazione: il riposizionamento della popolazione agiata in ambito urbano. In: Ruggiero V, Scrofani L, Turismo e competitività urbana. Milano: Franco Angeli.
• Mazza A, Punzo A. Discrete Beta Kernel Graduation of Age-Specific Demographic Indicators. In: Ingrassia S, Rocci R, Vichi M. New Perspectives in Statistical Modeling and Data Analysis. Studies in classification, data analysis, and knowledge organization, p. 127-134, Berlin: Springer-Verlag
• Mazza A, Punzo A. Using the Variation Coefficient for Adaptive Discrete Beta Kernel Graduation. In: Cerchiello P, Tarantola C, CLADAG 2011 Book of Abstracts

Published R software packages

• Mazza A, Punzo A, KernSmoothIRT;Nonparametric Item Response Theory
• Mazza A, Punzo A, DBKGrad:;Discrete Beta Kernel Graduation of Mortality Data
• Bagnato L, De Capitani L, Mazza A, Punzo A, SDD:;Serial Dependence Diagrams
• Mazza A, Punzo A, Ingrassia S, flexCWM:;Flexible Cluster-Weighted Modeling
• Punzo A, Mazza A, McNicholas P D, ContaminatedMixt:Model-Based;Clustering and Classification with the Multivariate Contaminated Normal Distribution