Our Team
Meet the faculty and graduate students
The Group for Research in Economics and Finance (GREF) is an interdisciplinary research group based at Esade. It brings together a group of colleagues that share their commitment to academic life and the deep belief that education and research are the key intangible assets for sustainable progress.
Faculty
Postdoctoral researcher
![Erfan Ghofrani](/faculty-research/sites/default/files/professor/2022-11/gref_speaker_erfan-ghofrani.jpg)
Erfan Ghofrani
Postdoctoral researcher
Advisors: Dr Vicente Bermejo & Dr Carolina Villegas
Research and fields of interest:
Macroeconomics, Information Frictions, Firm Dynamics.
![Matthew Smith](/faculty-research/sites/default/files/professor/2023-12/matthew-smith__jpg.webp)
Matthew Smith
Postdoctoral researcher
Advisor: Dr Vicente Bermejo
Research and fields of interest:
Finance, Machine Learning and Generative AI
PhD Candidates
![Marco Errico](/faculty-research/sites/default/files/professor/2022-09/gref_speaker_errico.jpg)
Marco Errico
PhD student
Advisor: Dr Petya Platikanova
Research and fields of interest:
Economic consequences of securities regulation, reporting choices.
![Sahand Mostafazadehdavani](/faculty-research/sites/default/files/professor/2022-09/speaker_sahand-mostafazadehdavani.jpg)
Sahand Davani
PhD student
Advisors: Dr Ariadna Dumitrescu & Dr Anna Bayona
Research and fields of interest:
Sustainable investments and information in financial markets.
![Salma Lemkhente](/faculty-research/sites/default/files/professor/2022-10/gref_speaker_salma-lemkhente.jpg)
Salma Lemkhente
PhD student
Advisors: Dr Ariadna Dumitrescu & Dr Carolina Villegas-Sánchez
Research and fields of interest:
Intangible assets, digital economy, investment-less growth.
![Cecilia Simkievich](/faculty-research/sites/default/files/professor/2022-10/gref_speaker_cecilia-simkievich%20.jpg)
Cecilia Simkievich
PhD student
Advisors: Dr Calin Arcalean & Dr Ioana Schiopu
Research and fields of interest:
Macro labor, structural change, gender in the labor market.
![Thuy Linh Vu](/faculty-research/sites/default/files/professor/2022-10/gref_speaker_thuy-linh-vu_1.jpg)
Thuy Linh Vu
PhD student
Advisor: Dr Ariadna Dumitrescu
Research and fields of interest:
Sustainable finance, fintech, digital banking.
![Zhenchao Xu](/faculty-research/sites/default/files/professor/2023-05/gref_ZhenchaoXu__jpg.webp)
Zhenchao Xu
PhD student
Advisor: Dr Carolina Villegas
Research and fields of interest:
FDI, trade and immigration
![Maosen Wang](/faculty-research/sites/default/files/professor/2022-10/gref_speaker_maosen-wang.jpg)
Maosen Wang
PhD student
Advisors: Dr Luca Del Viva & Dr Carlo Sala
Research and fields of interest:
Financial reporting and disclosure, financial intermediaries, market efficiency.
![Christoph Zimmermann](/faculty-research/sites/default/files/professor/2023-09/Christoph-Zimmermann__jpg.webp)
Christoph Zimmermann
PhD student
Advisor: Anna Bayona
Research and fields of interest:
Private Equity
![Sameh Marei](/faculty-research/sites/default/files/professor/2023-09/Sameh-Marei__jpg.webp)
Sameh Marei
PhD student
Advisor: Carolina Villegas
Research and fields of interest:
Corporate finance, macro finance and policy evaluation.