Fernando Anjos

Recent working papers

A Behavioral Theory of Managerial Brownshifting, with Irem Demirci, Sep-25 (draft available upon request)

• To be presented in September 2025 at the Exeter Sustainable Finance conference.

• Abstract: We develop a behavioral principal-agent model where economic actors are elated if a "green" project succeeds and disappointed if it fails. We show in this setting that a standard performance contract---i.e., a contract that ignores the non-pecuniary aspects of preferences---can inadvertently trigger brownshifting, i.e., the agent choosing a relatively less green, or even brown, project. Moreover, brownshifting occurs even though in the model green and brown projects are equally attractive from a financial standpoint. We characterize the optimal contract and show that in some instances it builds on a no-brownshifting condition, which guarantees the agent selects the greenest possible project. Such contracts are characterized by very high-powered compensation, which endogenously makes the agent focus more on elation than on disappointment and thus incentivizes him to take on "greenness risk". Finally, we show that in the context of our model greenshifting agency frictions can also occur, although they require unintuitive assumptions regarding the principal's preferences.

Do Specialized Distress Investors Undermine Firms Ex Ante?, with Irem Demirci and Miguel Oliveira, Dec-24

• Presentations: Cambridge-Nova finance workshop (Sep. 2022); SKEMA Corporate Restructuring Conference (May 2023); Spanish Finance Forum (June 2023); Lubrafin (June 2023); Vienna Festival of Finance Theory (August 2023)

Publications

Networks in the Balance: An Agent-Based Model of Optimal Exploitation, with Ray Reagans, Journal of Organization Design, vol. 9, October 2020

Technological Specialization and the Decline of Diversified Firms, with Cesare Fracassi, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, vol. 53, August 2018, pgs. 1581-1614

     - working paper version

     - online appendix

Managerial Myopia, Financial Expertise, and Executive-Firm Matching, with Chang-Mo Kang, Journal of Corporate Finance, vol. 43, April 2017, pgs. 464-479

     - best paper award at 2014 FIRN conference

     - working paper version

     - online appendix

Resource Configuration, Inter-Firm Networks, and Organizational Performance, Mathematical Social Sciences, vol. 82, July 2016, pgs. 37-48

     - working paper version

     - Matlab code for equilibrium computation and simulations data

Social Ties and Economic Development, with Jose Anchorena, Journal of Macroeconomics, vol. 45, September 2015, pgs. 63-84

     - working paper version

Inter-Company Matching and the Supply of Informed Capital, with Alejandro Drexler, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, vol. 111, March 2015, pgs. 119-136

     - working paper version

     - online appendix

Shopping for Information? Diversification and the Network of Industries, with Cesare Fracassi, Management Science, vol. 61, no. 1, January 2015, pgs. 161-183

     - working paper version

     - online appendix

Commitment, Learning, and Alliance Performance: A Formal Analysis Using an Agent-Based Network Formation Model, with Ray Reagans, Journal of Mathematical Sociology, vol. 37, no. 1, February 2013, pgs. 1-23

     - working paper version

     - technical appendix

Investment Commitment and the Valuation of Underwriting Agreements for Rights Issues, Finance Research Letters, vol. 7, no. 4, December 2010, pgs. 202-213

Costly Refocusing, the Diversification Discount, and the Pervasiveness of Diversified Firms, Journal of Corporate Finance, vol. 16, no. 3, June 2010, pgs. 276-287

Working Papers

A Signaling Theory of Derivatives-Based Hedging, with Adam Winegar, Jun-22

Conglomerates with Financial Divisions: An Internal Capital Markets Perspective, with Cláudia Custódio, Nuno Fernandes, and João Magro, Mar-18

Corporate Alliances, Resource Reallocation, and the Propagation of Merger Activity, with Harvey Jing, Oct-13