Prof. Konrad Adler tells us more about his youth, studies, interests and current research in the interview below.

Where did you grow up?
I grew up in St.Gallen, home to Switzerland’s oldest football club. 

What were your hobbies as a child? 
I played the French Horn, first mostly on my own, which was rather boring, but later on I joined different orchestras, which was a lot of fun. I was also a boy scout for many years, where summer camps were my favorite part. 

Where did you go to University?
St. Gallen is great, but after graduating from high school, I wanted to see something new and studied international relations in Geneva for my undergraduate degree. I then went further west to Paris, and then to Toulouse for my Master’s degree. I learned a lot during these two years in France and got to know people from every corner of the planet.

Where did you do your PhD? 
At Toulouse School of Economics. Before going to Toulouse, I did not think about doing a PhD, but since I started getting interested in research, I signed up for the PhD track and got into the program.  

Who was your PhD Advisors?
My main advisor was Franck Portier, who works on business cycle models and has started the literature about news driven business cycles. Franck was super helpful. He provided pragmatic solutions, which were sometimes difficult to get by in a theory-minded place like Toulouse. 

Any anecdote or memory from your time as PhD?
Because TSE did not have subscriptions to some commercial financial databases, I tried to collect these data myself. In the process of reading through a lot of loan contracts, I realized that firms in the US are often subject to earnings-based constraints, which, at the time, was relatively less known, at least in macroeconomics. This insight then provided the starting point for my job market paper. 

What is your main research focus?
I work on corporate finance, focusing on how different aspects of firms’ capital structure affect their decisions to invest, hire, and compete with other firms.

What is the next research problem you plan to work on?
Together with two colleagues from the BIS, we have started studying whether and how a change in the type of a firm's equity-holders affects the monitoring of the firm's bank.  

What attracted you to UNISG and SFI?
UNISG combines a great academic environment, among other things, being part of SFI, with close ties to the real economy. This is a perfect combination for someone studying firms like me.

What languages do you speak?
German, English, French and little bit of Russian. 

Tell us something exciting that happened to you in the last five-ten years (it doesn’t have to be related to research)?
With a colleague, I won an amateur Badminton tournament. The prize was a new racket which I am now using every week. 

What do you do in your spare time?
In summer, my family and I like going to the lake or outdoor pool. In winter, we try to go to the mountains as often as possible. 

What is your favorite holiday destination?
I like exploring new places. In the past few years we have traveled to different places in Europe:  we went on holidays to Holland, Germany, Italy, Albania, and Greece. 

What is your favorite quote?
“You can't teach an old dog new tricks” 
It is often rewarding to try again after a failed attempt. There are quite a few tricks that I did not understand as a youth, but made perfect sense later.

What question do you not like getting asked and why? 
In a seminar, I like being asked any question because it shows that the person is interested and cares about my work, independently of whether they like what I do or not.