New research with Ralph de Haas and Vincent Sterk studying dynamics of European startups using unsupervised learning . We distinguish five starts-up types: capital intensive, cash-rich, high leverage, large and basic. We show that shifting the composition of startup cohorts can boost macroeconomic performance.

In this paper Belinda Tracey and I study the UK Help-to-Buy program. We show that relaxing the down payment constraint positively affects household consumption in addition to stimulating housing market activity. Our findings point to a further link between the housing market and household consumption that does not operate through the home purchase and housing wealth channels.

Cash is king as we argue in our new VoxEU blog (joint with Andi Joseph, Christiane Kneer and Jumana Saleheen). Companies with large amounts of cash on their balance sheet at the onset of the coronavirus crisis might enjoy a place in the sun and might emerge as winners in the post-Covid world.

I have been appointed Professor of Financial Economics at the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). Starting from July 2020 I will combine my professorship with my position as a Senior Research Advisor at the Bank of England. You can find the announcement here.

In this paper Stijn Claessens and I exploit our Bank Ownership Database and we show that the presence and entry of a foreign bank has a positive impact on bilateral export and (to a lesser extent) import. We find evidence that indicates that foreign banks facilitate trade by reducing financial frictions for firms that (want to) trade.