My name is Ana and I’m a PhD Candidate in Finance at the University of Zurich and the Swiss Finance Institute.
You can find more information about me and my current projects below. You can also contact me at ana.ferro@df.uzh.ch. I look forward to hearing from you!
Political Uncertainty and the Geographic Allocation of Credit: Evidence from Small Businesses
with Geraldo Cerqueiro and Fabiana Penas
http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3492043: BrilliantWe investigate how banks change the geographic distribution of their small business loan portfolio when they face political uncertainty in some of the states where they operate. Using exogenous variation in gubernatorial elections with binding term limits, we show that political uncertainty causes local banks to increase out-of-state lending to small firms, particularly those located in higher-income areas. This effect follows a decrease in local lending and is stronger for banks that are more capital-constrained. The increase in out-of-state credit leads to an increase in employment growth and net firm creation in sectors with larger capital needs.
Seminars and conferences (* presentation by co-author): University of Zurich and ETH Research Seminar in Contract Theory, Banking and Money (2020); Universidad Torcuato Di Tella Seminar* (2020); Financial Intermediation Reserch Society, FIRS (2020, cancelled due to Covid-19); 47th Annual Meeting of the European Finance Association, EFA* (2020); Goethe University Finance Seminar* (2020); HEC Lausanne SGS Brownbag* (2021); ESCP Business School Finance Seminar* (2021); FMA European Conference* (June 2023).
Accepted for publication at the Journal of Credit, Money and Banking
The Value of Corporate Social Responsibility: Evidence from an Inflation-Driven Crisis of Trust
with Stefano Ramelli
http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4308164: BrilliantStakeholder trust is a fundamental element in firms’ activities, but identifying its impact on corporate performance is empirically challenging. This paper provides new evidence on the role of social capital on firm value employing a sudden increase in inflation as exogenous variation in stakeholder trust. Analyzing the cross-section of U.S. stock returns from 2018 through 2022, we find that in months following higher inflation rates, equity investors reward firms with stronger social capital, as proxied by their corporate social responsibility (CSR) levels. The result holds using different measures of inflation and CSR. The effect is stronger for firms headquartered in Democratic U.S. states (those most exposed to the “corporate greed” narrative of inflation) and ex-ante higher trust regions, as well as for firms with higher levels of customer awareness, customer sensitivity, and intangible capital. Analyst forecast revisions provide additional evidence that cash flow considerations drive the observed inflation-hedging property of CSR. Overall, the findings spotlight inflation as a crisis in stakeholder trust and provide new insights into the importance of social capital for firm value.
Seminars and conferences (* presentation by co-author): University of Zurich Brown Bag Lunch Series (2023); SOF ASP Research Workshop, University of St.Gallen* (2023); Institut Louis Bachelier Financial Risks International Forum* (2023); SFI Research Days (2023); EHL Sustainable Investing Forum (2023); EEA-ESEM Barcelona (2023); AFA PhD Student Poster Session 2024 (January 2024).
… and more to follow!
I started my PhD in the beautiful city of Zurich in 2019. My research interests are Empirical Corporate Finance and Entrepreneurship, and my main advisor is Professor Alexander F. Wagner.
Before I joined the PhD Program, I worked in the Private Banking industry in Geneva and taught Finance and Python courses to Economics and Business Administration students in Portugal.
Fun fact: my last name, Mão de Ferro, literally means hand of iron in Portuguese.
Ana MÃO DE FERRO 