Prof. Alberto Plazzi

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

In a recent paper, Professor Plazzi and his co-authors use equity holdings of primary dealers, pension funds, banks, and insurance companies to study their role in shaping the equity duration premium. In line with the predictions from a theoretical model with reinvestment risk, these intermediaries reduce demand for long-duration claims when their aggregate capital ratios are low. This result extends cross-sectionally, as better-capitalized institutions tilt their portfolios more strongly toward long-duration stocks. Shifts in intermediaries' preferences generate monotonic changes in expected returns across duration deciles, with larger effects when demand shocks operate at the holding-company level. Professor Plazzi actively participates in SFI Knowledge Exchange activities on the Swiss real estate market.

• 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