Ana Elisa Pereira, academic vice-dean of the School of Economics and Business Administration, studies how prices in financial markets influence the decisions of companies and governments, with implications for economic growth, regulation, and the stability of countries.
The research of the academic vice-dean of the School of Economics and Business Administration,, Ana Elisa Pereira, focuses on understanding how movements in financial markets not only reflect the value of companies, but also convey relevant information to real-world strategic decision makers, such as corporate managers or government authorities.
An example of this phenomenon, known as the feedback effect , is observed in merger or acquisition announcements: when the market reacts negatively, the probability that the deal will not go through increases. This reveals that companies pay attention to the information emerging from the market and adjust their decisions accordingly.
In a working paper, Ana Elisa proposes a theoretical model to explain how this information transmission occurs in a context where multiple firms compete to attract informed investors. The study suggests that, in order to capture their attention, firms may even have incentives to take greater risks.
This research is part of a Fondecyt Regular grant awarded in 2023 by ANID, which supports the line of research on the role of information in the economy and markets. "I have always been interested in the role of information in the economy. We live in a world where it circulates rapidly, but we don't always know how reliable it is. Information has become central to the economic sciences. In the financial markets, on the other hand, it is not about cheap talk: buying or selling shares involves real risk. This is a powerful signal that allows us to explore how investors influence business decisions," Pereira explains.
Her interest in this line stems from the idea that financial markets aggregate valuable information: if someone buys shares, he generally believes in the company's good future; if he sells, he probably anticipates difficulties. However, not all investors act on the same information, which complicates the analysis and opens up multiple research questions.
Understanding how information flows in these markets, Pereira says, is key to designing policies and regulations that make them more efficient. In this sense, her research includes concrete implications for issues such as the regulation of initial public offerings (IPOs), helping to improve the way companies finance themselves and access capital.
The main article is co-authored with Caio Machado, an academic from Universidad Católica, as part of an international academic collaboration.
In addition, Pereira is involved in other related research: a study on how governments can learn from financial markets to decide, for example, whether or not to bail out companies in crisis; and in a different line, a study that seeks to understand how social networks work in FOMO contexts (Fear Of Missing Out), when people fear being left out of experiences in which others participate massively.