Maria Alejandra Amado

Welcome to my site!

I am a research economist in the International Economics Division at the Bank of Spain and an Adjunct Professor at IE Business School. I got my PhD in Economics from UCLA. My research interests focus on International Economics, Macroeconomic Policy and Finance.

RESEARCH


Macroprudential FX Regulations: Sacrificing Small firms for Stability?

Macroprudential FX regulation may reduce systemic risk; however, little is known about its unintended costs. I show that policies taxing bank dollar lending may increase financing disparities between small and large firms. I propose a theoretical mechanism in which currency mismatch acts as a means for relaxing small firms’ borrowing constraints. Under this framework, a tax on dollar lending negatively affect the total borrowing of constrained (small) firms, while they only have compositional effects on the total credit to unconstrained (large) firms. To verify this mechanism empirically, I study the implementation of a macroprudential FX tax by the Central Bank of Peru. I construct a novel firm-level dataset that combines confidential data on the universe of loans given by Peruvian banks to nontradable firms. Exploiting the heterogeneity in the strictness of the tax across banks, I provide causal evidence of the heterogeneous effects of this tax on firms of different sizes. I confirm the predictions of my mechanism: 10% increase in bank exposure to the tax significantly increases disparities in the growth of total loans between small and large firms by 1.5 percentage points. When accounting for firms switching to soles financing from different banks, the effect on large firms financing is only compositional. My findings have implications for the understanding of the link between macroeconomic policy and inequality.

The African Continental Free Trade Agreement: Welfare Gains Estimates from a General Equilibrium Model

With Lisandro  Abrego, Tunc  Gursoy,  Garth  P.  Nicholls and Hector  Perez-Saiz, IMF Working paper  No.  19/124

In March 2018, representatives of member countries of the African Union signed the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement. This agreement provides a framework for trade liberalization in goods and services and is expected to eventually cover all African countries. Using a multi-country, multi-sector general equilibrium model based on Costinot and Rodriguez-Clare (2014), we estimate the welfare effects of the AfCFTA for 45 countries in Africa. Three different model specifications—comprising both perfect competition and monopolistic competition—are used. Simulations include full elimination of import tariffs and partial but substantial reduction in non-tariff barriers (NTBs). Results reveal significant potential welfare gains from trade liberalization in Africa. As intra-regional import tariffs in the continent are already low, the bulk of these gains come from lowering NTBs. Overall gains for the continent are broadly similar under the three model specifications used, with considerable variation of potential welfare gains across countries in all model structures.

WORK IN PROGRESS

Heterogeneous UIP Deviations Across Firms: The Role of Financial Frictions and Incomplete Markets

With   Miguel Acosta-Henao

Currency Mismatches and Production Networks: The Role of  Sectoral Linkages in  amplifying Balance Sheets Effects  

With   Brian  Cevallos Fujiy     


PRE-PHD WORKING PAPERS


■ Macroprudential Rules in  Small Open Economies

Central  Bank of Peru,  Working paper  series,  2014-009


■ Understanding  Latin America’s Financial Inclusion Gap

With  Liliana  Rojas-Suarez  Center  for Global Development,  Working paper  No.  367

TEACHING EXPERIENCE


■ University of California, Los  Angeles

Instructor


Graduate Teaching Assistant


Undergraduate Teaching Assistant


■ Universidad del  Pacifico, Lima - Peru

Undergraduate Teaching Assistant

CONTACT 

E-mail:  alejandra.amado@bde.es  /mariale.amado@gmail.com

Department of International Economics and the Euro Area

Calle Alcalá, 48, 28014 Madrid, Spain