Research

Research interest

International Macroeconomics and Finance, Empirical Banking, Natural disasters, Climate change

Working Papers

The Impact of Natural Disasters on Capital Flows: Preparedness and Exposure Matter

-Draft available

Natural disasters cause increasing economic damage worldwide, with weather events costing around $143 billion annually. While research has examined various economic effects of disasters, their impact on international capital flows has received limited attention in the literature. Relying on a machine learning technique to classify countries by disaster risk and preparedness, this study finds that preparedness, rather than disaster risk alone, drives investment behaviour. In less prepared, low-risk countries, a 0.1 percentage point increase in the disaster-affected population reduces portfolio and other flows by 0.5-4.3 percentage points of GDP. The impact goes beyond the affected areas: external disasters increase portfolio equity inflows by 3.6 percentage points in unaffected low-risk, less prepared countries, suggesting a shift of capital to safer markets.

Green FDI and Environmental Policy Uncertainty

-joint with Joëlle Noailly

Draft available soon

Loan Dynamics in the Face of El Nino: Unveiling Patterns in Peru’s Lending Channels

-joint with Alvaro Alejandro Hinostroza Lamilla and Gerald Alex Cisneros Rojas

Draft available soon

Geoeconomic Fragmentation and Trade: The Case of Small Open Economies

-joint with Seyed Reza Yousefi

Draft available soon

Publications

Deleveraging and Foreign Currency Loan Conversion Programs in Europe

-joint with Pınar Yeşin, Comparative Economic Studies

This paper first reviews the developments in the size and composition of the European banking sectors’ balance sheets since the Global Financial Crisis and then assesses the impact of foreign currency loan conversion programs on systemic risk. Aggregate data from 2009Q1 to 2019Q3 indicate three major developments. First, the deleveraging process in Europe has been sizeable, while credit growth may be hampered in several countries. Secondly, macroprudential measures and conversion programs have only partially achieved their goal of lowering financial dollarization in Central and Eastern Europe. Lastly, systemic risk remains elevated in the non-euro area.