Jose-Miguel is an international expert in the economics and political economy of disasters, who has participated in high-powered projects with international organizations, including the World Bank. He has a Routledge book forthcoming (April 2013), in the area of disaster economics, titled Disasters and the Networked Economy. He works on development economics with a focus on macroeconomic theory and policy in three main areas of concern. Firstly, naturally/socially-induced disasters via empirical, analytical and policy-orientated approaches. His main conclusion is that as a rule "disasters are a problem OF development, but not a problem FOR development". Secondly, he has done work on structural change, especially comparing the "Washington Consensus Model" with the "Asian Model". And thirdly, he has also worked on the analysis of infrastructures, proposing a novel two-gap model to assess the impact of infrastructural capital on growth. He has also proposed an optimally consistent method, via linear programming, to calculate a benchmark for the capital stock, which is both accurate and significantly cost-saving in finance and time, especially when data is scarce. It has now been applied in many countries, especially China.
Staff research
The School has a strong research record and scored very highly in the 2008 RAE.
Nizar's research interests are mainly in Microeconomic Theory, Public Economics and Game Theory. In addition to his work on No-Arbitrage conditions in assets markets, he is currently elaborating some work on Tiebout economies with overlapping clubs/jurisdictions and multiple memberships. His work on Tiebout/Clubs economies will have some game theoretic and pricing applications to general networks.
Ghazala Azmat's main interests are in applied and empirical microeconomics. Her research focuses on issues relating to competition, incentives and organisational structure, as well as on topics in labour and public economics. She is currently working on a number of projects that analyse the fundamentals behind incentive schemes used by organisations to influence the performance and the participation of agents.
Richard is a part time professor at QMUL and is the A J Pasant Professor of Economics and Finance at the Michigan State University, USA. He works in the area of dynamic econometric methods, international finance, asset pricing and time series analysis. His current main research interests are the theory of long memory processes, modelling volatility, general issues in prediction, international finance parity conditions, modelling risk premium, and the effects of central bank intervention. He has published over seventy articles in the main professional journals and is a Fellow of the Journal of Econometrics and an elected Fellow of the American Statistical Association. According to Repec, he is in the top 3% of all economists for citations and has an "h" statistic of 19. He is Co-Editor of the Journal of Empirical Finance and also serves as Associate Editor of a number of other journals and is visiting Scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
Francis works mainly on foreign exchange markets with a focus on FX microstructure which aims the understand exchange rate movements by analysing actual trading activity. Most recently he has studied how differences in beliefs amongst market participants influences returns and volatility. His research also extends to the interaction between monetary and exchange rate policy and financial markets, including recent work on foreign exchange policy in Iceland.
Andrea's research interests are in applied macroeconometrics and financial econometrics.
He is working on the econometric analysis of the term structure of interest rates and on forecasting and structural modelling with large datasets.
He has been an intern in the Monetary Policy Strategy division of the ECB and has done consulting work for HM Treasury Debt Management Office, Banca Intesa, the Central Bank of the Czeck Republic, and the Central Bank of Estonia.
Francesca's main interests are in labour and health economics, and applied microeconomics. Her current work agenda is related to crime, addictive behaviour and mental health issues. She's currently working on a project investigating the impact that crime has on the mental wellbeing of individuals living in communities that have been subjected to crime, but who have not themselves been victims of criminal actions. She's also working on a lifecycle model of smoking behaviour.
Davide’s research is focus in time series econometrics with particular interest on: state space methods, signal extraction, unobserved components models and long-memory models.
He also has been working on applied macroeconomics with particular interest in forecasting, business cycle analysis, learning expectations and dsge models.
Renato Faccini is a macroeconomist mostly interested in issues regarding the labour market. Most of his research has focused on search and matching theory applied to business cycle dynamics and labor market institutions. His current research investigates the role of unemployment for inflation dynamics and the relationship between house prices and regional mismatch.
Giulio Fella works in macroeconomics and theoretical labour economics. He has investigated the effects of dismissal regulations on unemployment, welfare and firms' investment in workers' training. He has worked on optimal insurance contracts in models of search unemployment. His current projects concern the effectiveness of alternative policies in shaping incentives to engage in criminal activity.
Marcelo has currently two lines of research. The first deals with the theory and application of nonparametric methods to high-frequency financial data. In particular, he has been working on a nonparametric framework for the analysis of volatility and jump spillovers as well as for identifying mispricings in the financial markets. Marcelo's second line of research aims to assess performance and risk-taking behaviour in the hedge fund industry.
Ana's research interests are macroeconometrics and forecasting. She has worked on applications of non-linear time series models to macroeconomic and financial time series, and on extensions of models with mixed data frequencies for forecasting macroeconomic variables. She is currently working on the impact of data revisions in forecasting macroeconomic aggregates.
Liudas has completed extensive research on long memory and integrated I(d) models. He is interested in ARCH models, their properties and estimation methods. Liudas has most recently been working on testing and estimation of integrated time series models in econometrics and development of comprehensive asymptotic theory for quadratic forms of dependent variables. He has published numerous articles in the leading statistical and econometric journals.
Emmanuel's research interests concern nonparametric identification and inference for auctions, optimal nonparametric testing and inference for recurrent/unit root processes. His main contribution in auction modelling consists in a nonparametric rate optimal estimation method that circumvents the numerical difficulties induced by the Nash equilibrium. His work in nonparametric testing deals with adaptive rate optimal tests that also have a simple limit distribution. This testing approach can be applied in various contexts and is easy to implement.
My research focuses on empirical questions related to the economics of crime. In particular, I have studied the effect of incarceration on education and subsequent criminal activity; one of these papers focuses on identifying peer effects in the criminal justice system. Other research questions are policy driven, such as whether the death penalty has a deterrent effect and whether gun shows in the U.S. increase suicide and homicide rates in the geographic areas surrounding the shows. My current research focuses on racial and gender biases in jury decisions and on the role of the family and neighborhood in determining criminal behavior.
Her research in Finance is carried out both at the theoretical and empirical level. In particular, she studies and develops models of investment where the effects of capital market imperfections contribute to shape the firm’s investment; where corporate investment is affected by the public investment and where capital market imperfections effects may be relaxed by some macroeconomic variables. In this research area she also analyzes how corporate governance characteristics affect the firm financing policies and how these affect the firm value.
Her research in Economics is instead focused on the main determinants of the adoption of innovations by firms and the impact of innovations on firm performance.
Asen's interests lie in the areas of Behavioral Economics, Experimental Economics, and Microeconomic Theory. His research so far has focused mainly on Behavioral Game Theory, which seeks to modify mainstream Game Theory by incorporating psychologically plausible assumptions on behavior. In his work, Asen has tested existing models from Behavioral Game Theory and has also tried to advance new explanations of behavior.
George works in the area of econometrics and macroeconomics. In the area of econometrics he is interested in (i) the analysis of nonlinear econometric models, (ii) nonlinear unit root tests, (iii) factor models for large datasets (iv) model selection (v) tests of rank (vi) tests of nonlinearity and (vii) econometric forecasting. He has developed unit root tests that are powerful against nonlinear stationary processes for a variety of nonlinear alternative hypotheses. He has developed new tests for nonlinearity with very favourable size and power properties. He has proposed a new methodology for estimating factors from large datasets using state space models. In the area of macroeconomics he has investigated the persistence properties of a number of macroeconomics series and used state space and nonlinear models to forecast GDP for Europe and the US.
Marika's main interest is macroeconomic modelling. The analysis of dynamic macro-labour models with spillover effects, the evaluation of the inflation-unemployment tradeoff, and the identification of the factors which jointly drive these central macro variables are the focal points of her research. The theoretical and empirical models of her work draw a new line of research and her results challenge the macroeconomic consensus on two major fronts: (i) the interplay of dynamics and growth in labour market models questions the prevailing wisdom of the natural rate of unemployment, and (ii) the existence of a downward-sloping Phillips curve points against the classical dichotomy doctrine.
In parallel, an assessment of the market economy and the current crisis is put forward in our thesis of "Warrant Economics, Call-Put Policy Options and the Fallacies of Economic Theory".
Winfried considers macroeconomic issues with a particular focus on consumption and labour markets. He has analyzed the effects of labour market institutions on economic performance emphasizing interactions between the structure of labour markets, financial markets and product markets. Moreover, he researches quantitative models with heterogeneous agents to understand consumption and saving patterns.
Stepana works in the area of Time Series Econometrics. In particular she focuses on time series with long memory. She investigates linear models with breaks in parameters and examines the validity of bootstrap methods for models with strongly dependent processes.
Leone's research interests are in the area of growth and finance. He is studying the effects on growth processes of structural change (i.e. industrialisation and crisis) by means of semi-parametric conditional distributions and ACF estimation. He also studies on the effects on firm value, investment and performance of corporate governance mechanisms such as premium for managers and spillover effects from public capital.
Yioryos's main areas of research are Mathematical Economics, Macroeconomics, and Environmental Economics.
Rachel's interests are applied macroeconomics, development economics and applied econometrics. She is currently working on the empirical analysis of a DSGE model with sticky prices and a vertical input-output structure, to model output persistence (in response to a monetary policy shock) of economies at different levels of development. She is also working on the econometric analysis of developing country business cycles; including turning point analysis of business cycle duration and timing, and statistical analysis of persistence, volatility, correlations with output, cross-country quantity correlations and real exchange rate correlations.
Marco Manacorda is a labor economist with a particular interest in developing countries. His research is empirical in nature and focuses on how incentives are shaped by Public Policies, with the ultimate aim of uncovering the micro-determinants of individual behavior. He has written on topics such as Wage Institutions, Schooling, Child Labor, Migration, Family Formation, Social Protection, Political Economy, Unemployment, Wage Inequality and Early Child Development, in both Developed and Developing countries. Marco Manacorda is also a Research Associate at the Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) at the London School of Economics, a CEPR Research Affiliate in the Public Policy and Labor Economics Programmes, and a Research Fellow at IZA (Bonn) and CESIFO (University of Munich).
Xavier’s primary research interest is in quantitative macroeconomics – the combination of theory and data for measurement and policy analysis. His agenda reaches across various themes, including the determination of fiscal policies, financial frictions and consumer credit regulation, unemployment and inequality, technology and development, and fertility and economic growth.
His recent work on political economy introduces dynamic voting and a rich demographic structure in quantitative macroeconomic models, a necessary step for the positive analysis of fiscal policies when there is population change. This permits the quantitative study of policy decisions in situations where the diverse political interests of different age groups interact. This model has been used to examine changes in US tax policies and unfunded social security.
Xavier’s recent work has also focused on consumer credit in order to study personal bankruptcies and the impact of banking regulation. This research considers contracts that have the key realistic features of actual credit arrangements for unsecured household credit. It develops models for the determination of credit terms – credit limits and interest rates – in continuing credit relationships across the different types of households in the economy. This research can and does address policy questions of current practical significance such as the effect of tightening the ability of lenders to re-price risk on revolving loans.
Radoslawa's research interests are organizational economics and corporate finance. In the area of organizational economics she has analysed from a theoretical prospective the impact of labour market conditions on the internal organization of the firm, in terms of organizational structure and reward schemes for the employees. More recently she is working in the field of corporate finance, investigating the questions of creation and financing of spin-offs, and CEO turnover.
Paola's main research interests are in the area of financial markets and market microstructure. Her empirical work focuses on the microstructure of the electronic European government bond market. She is working on the effect of public and private information on the process of price formation, and on the presence of asymmetric information in the secondary inter-dealer and multi-dealer to customers markets. More recently she is analysing the role of asymmetric information and the probability of informed trading in the exchange traded funds market.
Barbara Petrongolo's main area of interest is applied labour economics. The focus of some of her recent contributions is the performance of labour markets with job search frictions, with applications to unemployment dynamics, welfare policy and interdependencies across local labour markets. She is also carrying out research on the causes and characteristics of gender earnings inequality across countries, with emphasis on the role of employment selection mechanisms, structural transformation, and interdependencies within the household.
Daniela works mainly on financial crises with a focus on the role of policies influencing the relations between the real and the financial spheres in developing countries. She has worked in the financial sector for seven years.
Andrea’s fields of interest are political economy, economic development and applied econometrics. So far his research has focused on the impact of natural resources on economic growth and political stability, and on the relation between racial income inequality and social capital in the US. He is currently working on the political influence of commercial television.
Christopher's primary research interests are in individual decision making; specifically, in the areas of revealed preference analysis, bounded rationality, utility theory, and intertemporal choice. His other interests include game theory, bargaining, choice under uncertainty, and evolutionary models.
Roberto's research interests include topics of dynamic models of cyclical growth, egalitarian principles, and distribution of resources between generations, sustainable development, and normative principles in economics. He has focused mainly on dynamic recursive optimisation models with heterogeneous agents. He is also interested in the history of economic thought and in political economy from a mathematical perspective.
Environmental Economics, EU Emission Trading Scheme, Energy markets, Financial Economics. My research is on environmental policy of the EU with an emphasis on the UK. In my thesis I conduct a cost-benefit analysis of the environmental policy in the EU. I focus on decision-making under uncertainty. I also assess econometrically the disposition effect in the carbon market using an intra-daily data. In addition, I analyse the theoretical impact of the Kyoto mechanisms on the production incentives in the market. Specifically, I analyse how the uncertainty of the Policy, after the Kyoto protocol expires, affects the current emissions rate of the producers.
Guglielmo's research interests lie in the areas of economic growth and economic education. He has investigated the role of imperfect capital markets in human capital accumulation and economic growth. Presently he is investigating the effects of alternative environmental policies on economic growth. In the area of economic education Guglielmo has a particular interest in student centred approaches to learning (such as PBL), the internationalisation of the curriculum and link between institutional sense of belonging and academic performance.
Nick's fields of interest are microeconomic theory, game theory, industrial organization, evolutionary economics, and complex adaptive systems. His research focuses on the theory of markets and economic behaviour, and he is particularly interested in the dynamics of interactive processes involving bounded rational, learning agents. In relation to this, in his work he follows theoretical as well as experimental and computational tracks. He has investigated the meaning of the concept of rationality in economics, and analysed the link between, on the one hand, ideas of economies as complex adaptive systems (e.g. in recent Agent-based Computational Economics work), and on the other hand, much earlier views on self-organization in economics as advanced by Adam Smith or Hayek. He has worked on models of price dispersion and consumer loyalty and of the phenomenon of information-contagion, and he has investigated the relevance and implications of a range of learning theories both in theory and in experimental setups (including various oligopolistic markets, a location game, and ultimatum games). Recent work also includes the significance of focal points and of signalling in coordination games, and the measuring of the competitiveness of football leagues.
Martin is a part-time professor at Queen Mary and member of the Monetary Policy Committee at the Bank of England. He works on a range of issues in applied economics.
His current research interests include the interaction between banking crises and recessions and the concept of economic sustainability. He also works on pension problems and related issues associated with saving. Other interests include problems associated with the interpretation of economic data such as the use of business surveys and the production of high-frequency economic indicators.
Andriy's research interests are in the areas of microeconomic and game theory, with a particular focus on adaptive learning and decision making in uncertain environments, as well as bargaining theory, auctions and contracts.
