PHD CANDIDATE, MANAGERIAL ECONOMICS AND STRATEGY, KELLOGG SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

Contact Information

Kellogg School of Management
Northwestern University
2001 Sheridan Road
Evanston, IL 60208
Phone: 224-307-9899
roman.acosta@kellogg.northwestern.edu

 

 

 

Education

Ph.D., Managerial Economics and Strategy, Kellogg School of Management, 2021 (expected)
MS, Managerial Economics and Strategy, Kellogg School of Management, 2016
BA, Economics, Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, 2013.

Primary Fields of Specialization

Empirical Corporate Finance

Secondary Fields of Specialization

Applied Microeconomics

Curriculum Vitae

Download Vita (PDF)

Job Market Paper

Loans and Employment: Evidence from Bank-Specific Liquidity Shocks

Download Job Market Paper (PDF)

Abstract: This paper investigates the relationship between expansionary credit events and firms’ employment decisions. To overcome the endogeneity coming from the supply side of credit we exploit the legal and political framework in Mexico to examine the effects of local governments’ prepayment of loans, a situation that leads banks to channel newfound liquidity to firms. Analysis of a novel data set covering a 10-year period shows that a one-standard-deviation increase in the issuance of new loans increases firms’ employment by 2.57 percentage points. Timing of the boost in employment varies with smallest firms reacting immediately and larger firms reacting four months later. The effects are driven by firms in the manufacturing sector. The results highlight the importance of
the bank lending channel to stimulate employment in the short run, especially for smaller firms. Further, our estimates suggest that the effect of credit on employment could be amplified with policies that promote a more competitive corporate loan market.

 

Other Research Papers

The Trump Effect on Mexican Trade

This paper investigates short term economic effects of unexpected announcements on trade policy. We use Donald Trump’s electoral upset as an exogenous change on the expectations of Mexican firms on the continuation of NAFTA. We argue that firms’ expectations about trade changed after November of 2016, when they assigned a higher likelihood of a disruption on trade between the US and Mexico. We construct a new data set with firm-level volumes of exports, administrative employment records, and financial reports. We find that among firms exporting to the US those that rely more heavily on preferential NAFTA tariffs in the past are the most responsive to the shock. Exports for this firms increases after the election and remain high for the following year. We do not find strong evidence of US firms stockpiling on Mexican goods. Further, we find an increase in firms’ demand for liquidity after the shock but no increase in the supply of liquidity from Mexican financial institutions. This suggests that firms were constrained in their ability to accelerate their exports preemptively before new trade policies were implemented.

Loan Seasonality: the Mexican Credit Market

Abstract:  We document a strong seasonality in the volume and interest rates of new lending in the Mexican new corporate credit Market. Using administrative data from all bank loans issued in the country from 2009-2018 I find two expensive seasons in the summer and winter, which coincide with the typical holiday season for bankers in Mexico. Around eighty percent of the corporate lending business is conducted by the five largest banks in Mexico, so we explore the hypothesis that banks use their market power to price discriminate among firms with different degrees of non-deferrable investment needs.

 

References

Prof. Meghan Busse (Committee Chair)
Prof. Efraim Benmelech (Committee Co-chair)
Prof. Elena Prager
Prof. Georgy Egorov (Teaching Reference)