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About Me
As a Finance Assistant Professor (Serra Hunter Fellow) at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and Finance Visiting Professor at University of Zurich (UZH), 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.
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.
Previously, I spent seven rewarding years as a Finance Professor at INCAE Business School. 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.
I have Spanish and Iranian nationalities.
RESEARCH PAPERS
Memarian, M., Pisani, N., Berrone, P., & Ricart, J.E. (2026). Do headquarters’ locations matter for firm performance? An exploratory global study of 127 cities. Journal of International Business Policy, 1-21.
Winner of the Best Paper Award in the European Academy of Management 2023 Conference.
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, 54, 103713.
Cities play a crucial role in our societies and shape corporate actions in several ways. Their
economic relevance poses an important policy question: Does the city in which the headquarters of
a given company is located matter for its performance? If so, which urban dimensions matter more?
We focus on the headquarters’ location because it acts as the firm’s central node of strategic, financial,
and operational decisions, and a gateway to valuable resources. To date, no prior research has focused
on this specific policy question, and no dominant paradigm exists to address it. Thus, we adopt a
multilevel exploratory approach to inquire whether, and if so, how, the characteristics of a firm’s home
city—corresponding to where a firm locates its headquarters—relate to firm performance. To do so,
we use a unique 2014–2016 panel of 27,933 firm-year observations of 9952 public firms based in 127
cities—located in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Our findings show that the home city matters to firm
performance and distinct dimensions of the home city play a different role across geographical areas
and industries. Thus, our work highlights the growing importance of urban ecosystems in shaping
firm outcomes and provides new insights for policymakers and international business scholars.
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., Vergara-Alert, C. Benetti, S. (2024). The Effect of Urban Density on Stock Returns: Evidence from Satellite Imagery and Firms in the United States. 2nd Revise and Resubmit at Journal of Economics and Finance.
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.
Memarian, M., Martinez, O., Mora-Garcia, 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 Panama. Nuestros resultados muestran, en promedio, una disminucion en los precios de las propiedades, siendo las oficinas las mas afectadas. Sin embargo, los resultados tambien muestran una variacion 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 comparacion con los apartamentos. Los datos tambien muestran algunas evidencias de sustitucion de demanda entre la compra y el alquiler, lo cual podria 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.
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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