GUSTAVO S. CORTES

Assistant Professor of FinanceWarrington College of BusinessUniversity of Florida

CV [ PDF ]

EDUCATION

2013-2019: Ph.D. in EconomicsUniversity of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
2008-2012: B.Sc. in EconomicsUniversidade de São Paulo

RESEARCH AREAS

Macro-FinanceFinancial IntermediationCorporate FinanceFinancial History

CONTACT

gustavo.cortes [at] warrington.ufl.edu306 Stuzin HallPO Box 117168Gainesville, FL 32611-7168

LINKS

Google ScholarSSRNLinkedInX/TwitterBlueSky

BIOGRAPHY

Gustavo Cortes is an Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of Florida. He holds a B.Sc. in Economics from Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil, and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He taught Macroeconomics at the University of Illinois and currently teaches Equity & Capital Markets at the University of Florida. His academic work has been published in the Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Economics, and Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, among others. Professor Cortes's research focuses on macro-finance, financial intermediation, corporate finance, and financial history. In his recent work, he examines how banks, firms, central banks, and asset markets (stocks, bonds, real estate) behave during times of high distress. These include the Great Depression of the 1930s, the World Wars, the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, and the Brexit Referendum. Professor Cortes has been invited to present his research at several universities, central banks, and policy institutions, including the Federal Reserve Board, The World Bank, and the Central Bank of Brazil. His work has received coverage in leading media outlets, including Bloomberg, The New York Times, and The Financial Times.


PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS

(Materials provided are for Educational Use Only. Articles are the sole copyright of their respective publishers)

Risk Management in Deadly Times: The U.S. Life Insurance Industry in the 1918-19 Influenza Pandemic

Economic History Review, forthcoming (with G. Verdickt)
Replication Files + Firm-Level Data: ICPSR Download [ Please cite the paper if you use our data in your research ]
[ DOI Link | Working Paper (pdf) | One-Minute Video Summary | Media Coverage (Bloomberg) ]

Financial Factors and the Propagation of the Great Depression

Journal of Financial Economics, 2022, 145(2): 577-594 (with B. Taylor and M. Weidenmier)[ DOI Link | Published Version (pdf) | Working Paper (pdf) | Media Coverage (The Balance | National Affairs) ]

Exporting Uncertainty: The Impact of Brexit on Corporate America

Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 2022, 57(8): 3178-3222 (with M. Campello, F. d'Almeida, and G. Kankanhalli)[ DOI Link | Published Version (pdf) | Working Paper (pdf) | NBER Version | Media Coverage (CATO Institute | Cambridge Judge Business School) ]

Unconventional Monetary Policy and Disaster Risk: Evidence from the Subprime and COVID-19 Crises

Journal of International Money and Finance, 2022, 122(2022): 102543 (with G. Gao, F. Silva, and Z. Song)
Top-cited JIMF Article published since 2020 (Source)
[ DOI Link | Working Paper (pdf) | Published Version (pdf) ]

Stock Volatility and the Great Depression

Review of Financial Studies, 2019, 32(9): 3544-3570 (with M. Weidenmier)[ DOI Link | Published Version (pdf) | Working Paper (pdf) | Media Coverage (Bloomberg) ]

Deconstructing Credibility: The Breaking of Monetary Policy Rules in Brazil

Journal of International Money and Finance, 2017, 74(6): 31-52 (with C. Paiva)[ DOI Link | Published Version (pdf) | Working Paper (pdf) | Internet Appendix (pdf) | Media Coverage (Folha de S. Paulo) ]

Mortgages for Machinery: Credit and Industrial Investment in Pre-World War I Brazil

Financial History Review, 2014, 21(2): 191-212 (with R. Marcondes and M.D. Diaz)[ DOI Link | Published Version (pdf) | Working Paper (pdf) ]

WORKING PAPERS

(includes scheduled; * : presentation by coauthor; **: cancelled due to COVID-19)

Stock Volatility and the War Puzzle: The Military Demand Channel [ R&R: RFS ]

(with A. Vossmeyer and M. Weidenmier) Revise & Resubmit, Review of Financial StudiesPresentations: AEA Annual Meeting* | SEA Annual Meeting | UCB/UFRGS International Workshop on Macro-Finance (Brazil) | University of Florida (Warrington) | Utah State University (Huntsman)[ Working Paper (pdf) | NBER Working Paper | NBER Digest Summary ]Media Coverage: [ New York Times | Financial Times | The Telegraph | The Australian | The Age | The AU Times | Switzerland Times | National Affairs | MarketWatch | Money Control | Marginal Revolution | Le Nouvel Économiste (French) | El Economista (Spanish) ]

A Century of Municipal Bond Financing [ Updated! ]

(with I. Cunha and K. Barbosa) Under ReviewPresentations: Brookings Institution* | Federal Reserve Board | FGV-EESP | Louisiana State University (Ourso) | Monash Business School's FMCG Conference | Queen Mary, University of London* | SEA Annual Meeting | Texas A&M University's Young Scholars Finance Consortium | University of Florida (Warrington)* | University of Kentucky (Gatton)* | Virtual Municipal Finance Workshop* | Warwick Business School* | WEAI Annual Meeting | WFA Meeting* | Yale Finance Junior Conference[ Working Paper (pdf) ]

Housing Is the Financial Cycle: Evidence from 100 Years of Local Building Permits [ New! ]

(with C. LaPoint)
Presentations: Midwest Finance Association* (scheduled) | Erasmus University Rotterdam* | University of Michigan (Ross)* | Yale University*
[ Working Paper (pdf) | Twitter/X Thread | BlueSky Thread | Press Coverage: Yale Insights | UF Warrington Newsroom ]

From Arm's Length to Arm in Arm: Banks and Municipal Bond Financing [ New! ]

(with I. Cunha and S. Haque)Presentations: Brookings Institution (Municipal Finance Conference)* | FGV-EBAPE | Monash Business School | University of Dayton* | University of Florida | University of Kentucky (Gatton)*[ Working Paper (pdf) | Media Coverage: (Brookings Institution) ]

Send Them Back? The Real Estate Consequences of Repatriations [ Updated! ]

(with V. Sant'Anna) Under ReviewPresentations: St. Francisco Fed (Annual Workshop on Macroeconomic Implications of Migration)* | MIT Center for Real Estate* | AEA Annual Meeting (Poster Session)* | AERUS* | SKEMA Business School | University of Michigan's H2D2 Seminar Series* | University of Florida | University of South Florida | Junior Webinar on the Economics of Immigration* | Midwest Economics Association* | Young Economists Symposium*[ Working Paper (pdf) | MIT Center for Real Estate Research Paper No. 23/19 (pdf) | Media Coverage (AEA Video Interview) ]

Finding Home When Disaster Strikes: Dust Bowl Migration and Housing in Los Angeles [ New! ]

(with D. Baerlocher and V. Sant'Anna)
Presentations: American Economic Association Annual Meeting* | MIT Center for Real Estate* | The World Bank
[ Working Paper (pdf) | Twitter/X Thread | MIT Center for Real Estate Research Paper No. 24/13 (pdf) ]

Unleashing International Trade through Financial Integration: Evidence from a Cross-Border Payment System [ New! ]

(with L. Mariani and V. Sant'Anna)
Presentations: IPA-GPRL Annual Meeting at Northwestern (Kellogg)* | University of Milano-Bicocca* | South African Reserve Bank* | University of Pretoria* | University of Cape Town* | ERSA Workshop on Financial Technology and Development*
[ Working Paper ]

Credit Shock Propagation in Firm Networks: Evidence from Government Bank Credit Expansions

(with T. Silva and B. Van Doornik)Presentations: Amsterdam Business School | Bank of Spain (CEMLA)* | Central Bank of Brazil | Chicago Financial Institutions Conference** | EIEF | Federal Reserve Board | George Mason University (School of Business) | Indiana University (Kelley) | University of Florida (Warrington) | University of Illinois | University of Kentucky (Gatton) | University of Maryland (Robert H. Smith) | University of New South Wales | University of Pittsburgh (Katz) | University of Toronto (Rotman/Scarborough)[ BCB Working Paper 507/2019 (pdf) ]

The Downstream Channel of Financial Constraints and the Amplification of Aggregate Downturns

(with S. Rocha)Runner Up, Best Paper in Banking/Corporate Finance, FMCG 2023 | Finalist, Best Paper in Corporate Finance, FMA 2021
Presentations: FMCG 2023* | AFA 2022 Annual Meeting (Poster Session)* | Australasian Finance & Banking Conference* | FMA 2021 Annual Meeting* | LACEA-LAMES 2021 Annual Meeting* | University of Illinois* | Vietnam Banking & Finance Symposium*
[ Working Paper (pdf) ]

Helping Wall Street Understand Fed Speak: Monetary Policy Communication and Corporate Conference Calls

(with M. Sethuraman and F. Silva)Presentations: Nanyang Technological University* | UFPE (Brazil)* | University of Toronto (Rotman)* | University of Missouri (Trulaske)*[ Working Paper (pdf) ]

Is Corporate Credit Risk Propagated to Employees?

(with F. Correia, T. Martins, and T. Silva)Presentations: BI Norwegian Business School* | Central Bank of Brazil* | Halle Institute for Economic Research* | Hanken School of Economics* | Insper* | Iowa State University (Ivy)* | Nova SBE* | Oregon State University (Business)* | PUC Chile* | Stockholm Business School* | Tulane University (Freeman)* | University of Georgia (Terry)* | Université Laval* | University of Massachusetts-Boston (Business)* | University of Vienna* | University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Lubar)* | Warwick Business School* |  Wilfrid Laurier University (Lazaridis)* | World Bank (Research Department)*[ Working Paper (pdf) ]

Regional Monetary Policies and the Great Depression

(with P. Amir-Ahmadi and M. Weidenmier)Presentations: 2019 Midwest Macroeconomics Meeting* | 2020 NBER Spring Meeting** | 2020 NBER Summer Institute* | Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago**[ Working Paper (pdf) | Internet Appendix (pdf) | NBER Working Paper ]

WORK IN PROGRESS

The Glass-Steagall Act and Bank Stock Market Speculation

(with S. Mahmood and M. Weidenmier)Presentations: CEPR Macro-History Seminar Series* | Federal Reserve Monetary & Financial History Workshop (St. Louis Fed)* | Midwest Macroeconomics Meeting* | Rutgers University*

Cheap Credit, Costly Outcomes: Universities and Tax-Exempt Debt

(with I. Cunha and G. Junqueira)Presentations: University of Florida (Warrington)* | University of Kentucky (Gatton)*[ Working Paper (pdf | coming soon!) ]

The Product Market Consequences of Corporate Bankruptcy: New Evidence from 300 Million Retail Transactions

(with M. Campello and S. Rocha)Presentations: FSU-Truist Beach Conference | Monash Business School* | Sydney Banking & Financial Stability Conference* | LUBRAFIN* | PIMES-UFPE (Brazil)

INVITED PUBLICATIONS

The Evolution of Brazil's Banking System

The Oxford Handbook of the Brazilian Economy, 2018, 198-220 (with R. Marcondes)[ DOI Link | Published Version (pdf) | Working Paper (pdf) ]

On the Irrelevance of Mercosur: Evidence from Foreign Direct Investment

Latin American Business Review, 2014, 15(3-4), 291-314 (with C. Paiva)[ DOI Link | Published Version (pdf) | Working Paper (pdf) ]

TEACHING

University of Florida

FIN 4504: Equity & Capital Markets (SP 2020, 2021, 2022; FA 2022, 2023, 2024)

University of Illinois

ECON 303: Intermediate Macroeconomics (SP 2015, 2016; FA 2015)ECON 103: Principles of Macroeconomics (FA 2017; SP 2018)ECON 102: Principles of Microeconomics (FA 2014)

TEACHING AWARDS

University of Illinois

The Robert E. Demarest Memorial Teaching Award (2016)This award is made to Economics Teaching Assistants "in recognition of outstanding performance in the classroom."