Research

My research interests are at the intersection between finance and macroeconomics. My recent work covers topics in climate finance and sustainable investing, financial intermediation, as well as the rise of intangible capital and its implications for corporate financing, investment, and monetary policy. My papers are listed below, also see my Google Scholar Profile.

Publications

Monetary Policy and Intangible Investment (with Lev Ratnovski)

Journal of Monetary Economics (JME), Volume 134, March 2023

Online Appendix | VoxEU column

We document that intangible capital weakens monetary policy transmission. Our evidence is consistent with a weaker credit channel of monetary policy, as firms with intangible assets use less debt.

Sustainability Preferences Under Stress: Evidence from COVID-19 (with Sehoon Kim)

Forthcoming, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis (JFQA)

Using COVID-19 as an economic shock, we document fragile demand for socially responsible investments (SRI) by retail mutual fund investors. Corroborated by out-of-sample survey evidence, our findings highlight a high sensitivity of SRI demand by retail investors with respect to income shocks.

Liquidity Creation, Investment, and Growth (with Thorsten Beck, Thomas Lambert and Mathijs van Dijk)

Forthcoming, Journal of Economic Growth (JEG)

Online Appendix | VoxEU column

Bank liquidity creation is positively associated with economic growth at the country- and industry-level, and especially in industries that rely more on debt financing. This relationship is non-linear, as liquidity creation has a weaker effect on growth in countries with a higher share of industries relying on intangible assets.

Is there an investment gap in advanced economies? If so, why? (with Germán Gutiérrez and Thomas Philippon)

Prepared and published for the 2017 ECB Forum on Central Banking

VoxEU Column

We compare corporate investment in Europe and the US. Investment is weak in both regions, but the reasons are more cyclical in Europe and more structural in the US.

Working Papers

Bank Capital Regulation in a Zero Interest Environment

Revise & resubmit, Journal of the European Economic Association (JEEA)

Among others, presented at the EFA Annual Meeting and OxFIT

Supported through the ECB's Lamfalussy fellowship program

Dynamic macro-banking model. Banks earn an interest margin but cannot set negative deposit rates. At the ZLB, shrinking margins result in more risk taking by banks. At the same time, capital regulation is less effective in curbing risk taking at the ZLB.

Too Levered for Pigou: Carbon Pricing, Financial Constraints, and Leverage Regulation (with Magdalena Rola-Janicka)

New version! February 2023

Among others, presented at the Finance Theory Group Spring Meeting 2022 and the Stanford Institute for Theoretical Economics (SITE) conference 2022

We derive jointly optimal carbon pricing and financial regulation, and show that climate-related transition and physical risks have opposite implications for how carbon taxes interact with financial constraints.

Creating Intangible Capital (with Enrico Perotti and Tomislav Ladika)

Among others, presented at AFA Annual Meeting and FIRS

Corporate finance theory built around the insight that the creation of intangible capital largely relies on high-skill human capital. Delivers novel rationale for weak investment- and funding demand of high-intangible firms, distinct from traditional precautionary motive.

Secular Trends and Technological Progress (with Enrico Perotti)

Among others, presented at the NBER Summer Institute (Capital Markets and the Economy Workshop) and the CEPR Annual Macro and Growth Meeting

Also distributed under the titel "Redistributive Growth"

General equilibrium growth model to understand whether recent long-term trends such as falling interest rates and low demand for external finance by corporations may be related to the rising importance of intangible and human capital.