Working Papers

Is Bank Misconduct Related to Social Capital? Evidence from U.S. Banks, Conditionally accepted at  the Journal of Banking and Finance

• • U.S. banks headquartered in high social capital areas, as indicated by the strength of civic norms and the density of social networks, are less likely to face enforcement actions for misconduct. The results reflect that bank misconduct is less likely to be committed in high social capital areas due to higher concerns about the costs imposed by negative bank externalities. 

  • Selected presentations: SAEe Conference (2018), Paris-Dauphine University (2019), CUNEF (2019), ASSA/AEA (2020), SWFA Conference (2021)

Governance effort reallocation by institutional owners, with S. Garcia and A. Remesal

• Institutional investors re-balance between internal and external monitoring mechanisms. As heightened short-selling threats improve external discipline and alleviate the need for direct monitoring, monitoring-prone institutional investors reallocate efforts to other portfolio firms. 

• Selected presentations: Financial Markets and Corporate Governance Conference (2022)*,  FMA Europe (2022), KU Leuven Sustainability and Finance Workshop (2022), Erasmus Corporate Governance Conference (2023)

• Formerly entitled "Institutional investors and the governance spillovers of financial regulations: Evidence from a natural experiment"

Does Democracy Shape International Merger Activity?, with A.F. Ahmad, T. Lambert and A. Romec, R&R Journal of International Economics

• Merger flows involve acquirers from more democratic countries than their targets. This result is primarily driven by a pull factor, that is, firms in countries with weaker democratic institutions attract cross-border deals. Democratic institutions have a fundamental influence on international merger activity because they are conducive to better corporate governance standards.

• Selected presentations: Democracy and Finance: An Interdisciplinary Conference (2022)*, CICF (2023)*, EFA (2023, poster)

• Featured on The FinReg Blog (Duke University), and  Poleconfin

• Reproducibility certification

*Presented by a coauthor

Peer-Reviewed Publications

Climate shocks, institutional investors, and the information content of stock prices (2024), with I. Blanco and A. Remesal, Journal of Corporate Finance

External Governance and Capital Structure: Evidence from Media Coverage (2022), with A. Romec, Spanish Journal of Finance and Accounting / Revista Española de Financiación y Contabilidad

Institutional Investor Distraction and Earnings Management (2021), with A. Garel, A. Romec and A. Scott, Journal of Corporate Finance

Stock Market Listing and the Persistence of Bank Performance Across Crises (2020), with A. Garel and A. Romec, Journal of Banking and Finance  

Is Bank Capital Sensitive to a Tax Allowance on Marginal Equity? (2019), with C. Moussu, European Financial Management   

Book Chapters

A Political Economy of the European Monetary Institutions and Reform Proposals (2017), in Financial Regulation in the EU: From Resilience to Growth, (pp. 9-42), Palgrave MacMillan.

Policy Work 

European Comission Project COMP/2022/OP/0003  - Senior Expert  (2023)                                                   

Study on the Impact of State Aid Rules for Banks in Difficulty