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About Me
As a Finance Assistant Professor at INCAE Business School, my research interest lies at the intersection of Urban Economy/Finance Real Estate, Asset Pricing and Corporate Finance. In particular, I analyse the effect of urban characteristics of the cities and their management system on firms’ performance and their financial outcome.
I have my Ph.D. in Financial Management from IESE Business School, University of Navarra, Spain. I did a Master of Research in Management at IESE Business School and a Master of Science in Socio-Economic System Engineering majored in Economics and Finance at Sharif University of Technology, Iran. I also have a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from University of Tehran, Iran.
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I am one of the reviewers for Journal of Business Research (JOBR), as well as the member of Academic Female Finance Committee (AFFECT) of American Finance Association, Women Economists Committee in Latin America and the Caribbean (WELAC), LACEA Urban Economics Network in Latin America and the Caribbean, and Editorial Committee of the INCAE Business Review magazine.
Prior to my doctoral academic career, I worked as a market research specialist at Electrogen Company, one of the major producers of electrical motors in Iran. I was a team leader and supervisor of one of the production lines in the factory. I also worked as a mechanical engineering expert at the simulation laboratory of Razi Metallurgy Research Center in Iran period to my Master education, and as a mechanical engineer at Nargan Company, an engineering and construction Company in oil, gas and petrochemical industries.
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I have Spanish and Iranian nationalities, and International Mission Status of Costa Rican Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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RESEARCH PAPERS
Memarian, M., Benetti, S., Trejos, A., & Rodrguez-Chaves, S. (2023). Bank concentration, urban development and firm access to credit in Latin America. Finance Research Letters, 103713.
We study the effects of urban characteristics on access to commercial credit. For that purpose, we construct a dataset about the development potential of land in different cities, which takes into account building density, as well as natural geographic constraints. We use these data to assess how the development potential of urban centers affects the impact of bank concentration on financing. We apply our method to Latin America, a region in which banks play a crucial role, and many loans require real estate collateral. In line with the information-based hypothesis, we find a positive relation between bank concentration and firms’ credit accessibility; and we show that the development potential of the cities in which firms are located moderates this positive relationship and helps to explain firm-level differences in access to capital.
Memarian, M., Martínez, O. Mora-García, C. (2022). Pandemia y nuevas dinamicas en el mercado inmobiliario residencial. INCAE Business Review, 3, 39-51.
Las experiencias y los cambios de comportamiento durante la pandemia de COVID-19 pueden causar tendencias nuevas e inesperadas en diferentes mercados, ya sea de manera permanente o temporal. Este estudio analiza los impactos de la pandemia en el mercado inmobiliario de la Ciudad de Panamá. Nuestros resultados muestran, en promedio, una disminución en los precios de las propiedades, siendo las oficinas las más afectadas. Sin embargo, los resultados también muestran una variación significativa entre los diferentes segmentos de propiedades. En el sector residencial, encontramos evidencia de un mayor aumento de precios para las casas tanto en el mercado de compra como en el de alquiler en comparación con los apartamentos. Los datos también muestran algunas evidencias de sustitución de demanda entre la compra y el alquiler, lo cual podría explicarse por los cambios en el comportamiento y las preferencias. La pandemia trajo consigo disminuciones en los precios y alquileres de las viviendas en los centros urbanos, mientras que en la periferia hubo aumentos en los precios y alquileres.
Memarian, M., Pisani, N., Berrone, P., & Ricart, J.E. (2024). Are more inclusive and sustainable cities home to better performing firms? A global study. Winner of the Best Paper Award in the European Academy of Management 2023 Conference.
Cities play a crucial role in our societies and shape corporate actions in a multitude of ways. In this paper, we investigate whether more inclusive and sustainable cities tend to be home of better performing firms. To do so, we examine the association between a city’s quality—intended as its ability to be socially inclusive, environmentally sustainable, and economically competitive—and the profitability of firms located in such city. We examine this relationship using a unique 2014–2016 panel of 27,933 firm-year observations of 9,952 firms based in 127 cities—located in the U.S., Europe, and Asia—and performing a five-level analysis that accounts for firm, industry, city, country, and continent effects. Our findings show that city’s quality is positively related to firm profitability and this relationship is stronger for firms in high-tech industries. Our analysis also highlights nuanced variations across geographies, with distinct dimensions of the home-city’s quality—ranging from human capital to urban planning—playing a different role across regions. Overall, our work emphasizes how contextually grounded research can better inform firm-level strategies as well as city-level policies. Implications for future research are also discussed.
We study the effects of urban density of the areas where firms are located on their stock returns. Using high-resolution satellite images and image segmentation algorithms, we develop measures of building density for the most populated metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in the US. We find that firms located in areas with a higher potential for density increase are perceived as less risky in the stock market because they can feasibly sustain their growth, leading to lower stock returns. This effect is stronger for smaller and younger firms.
Benetti, S., Memarian, M., Trejos, A. (2024). Search Equilibrium
We develop a model where intertemporal transactions are essential to smooth consumption of risk-averse agents, yet certain frictions in the market cause that, in equilibrium, the only feasible form of trade are collateralized loans. We find the possibility of multiple equilibria, where the existence and value of these loans may be subject to expectations. We apply the model to several questions, including the link between money and credit, the institutional nature of financial development, and some empirical considerations.
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