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Alberto Plazzi is Professor of Finance at the Università della Svizzera italiana and acts as academic director for the Università's Master's in Finance. Professor Plazzi is a regular speaker at finance conferences worldwide and his papers have been published in top academic journals.

Expertise

Professor Plazzi studies COVID-19-induced credit risk spillovers between governments and large nonfinancial corporations. The effect of the pandemic on corporate-to-sovereign credit default swap spreads was high for core European Union countries with strong fiscal capacity and muted for peripheral European countries. Data shows quotes' systematic departure from fundamental credit risk for larger firms in core European Union countries. A bailout-augmented disaster-risk asset pricing model with defaultable public debt explains this puzzling finding. Lastly, the extent of the bailout guarantee in credit default swaps is about three times larger in the core than in the periphery of the European Union. One thought-provoking regulatory implication here is that credit risk contagion could signal market participants' pricing of government support.

Expertise Fields

  • Financial Markets
    • Financial Crises
    • Financial Forecasting
    • Information and Market Efficiency
    • International Financial Markets and Emerging Markets
  • Portfolio Management and Asset Classes
    • Asset Pricing
    • Equities
    • Fixed Income
    • Portfolio Management
    • Real Estate

Current Publications:

N°23-94: Financial Intermediaries and Demand for Duration

SFI Roundups: Real Estate—How Strong are the Foundations?

Nº 21-30: The Core, the Periphery, and the Disaster: Corporate-Sovereign Nexus in COVID-19 Times

Mind the (Convergence) Gap: Bond Predictability Strikes Back!

Nº 21-21: Backcasting, Nowcasting, and Forecasting Residential Repeat-Sales Returns: Forecast Combination meets Mixed Frequency

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