Mahsa Memarian

IESE Campus. Av. Pearson 21, Office E-305 08034 Barcelona, Spain Mobile: +34 697 520 456 Email: [email protected] Website: https://mmemarian.wixsite.com/website

EDUCATION

2015 -present IESE Business School, , Barcelona, Spain Ph.D. in Financial Management (Thesis supervisor: Professor Carles Vergara-Alert)

2015 IESE Business School, University of Navarra, Barcelona, Spain Short focused program, International Real Estate

2013-2015 IESE Business School, University of Navarra, Barcelona, Spain Master of Research in Management (MRM), Financial Management

2009-2011 Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran Master of Science (MSc), Socio-Economic System Engineering-Economics and Finance

2004-2008 University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran Bachelor of Science (BSc), Mechanical Engineering (Thesis supervisor: Professor A. Kahrobaeian)

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Urban Economy, Corporate Finance, Asset Pricing, Real Estate

JOB MARKET PAPER

• Memarian, M., Vergara-Alert, C., Urban Density and Firms’ Stock Returns This paper provides a new evidence about the link between firm’s location and their stock returns. Firms located in dense urban areas present higher productivity due to the flow of ideas and innovation in these areas. Through this productivity channel, urban density characteristics of the areas where firms’ headquarters are located affect stock returns. We use high-resolution satellite images from Earth to develop an exogenous measure of potential density increase (PDI) for the 95 largest metropolitan statistical areas (MSA) in the U.S. This measure represents the proportion of area in the total area within 1 hour drive from the center of the MSA that could rapidly increase its density. We find that firms located in areas with high potential density increase present lower stock returns: On average, a 1% higher PDI of an MSA results in 2.9% lower excess stock return of firms located in this MSA. Conferences: Conference on Frontiers of Factor Investing in Lancaster, April 2018, 2018 PhD Conference on Real Estate and Housing in Columbus OH, May 2018, Southwestern Finance Association (SWFA) in Albuquerque, Mar. 2018; Paris Financial Management Conference (PFMC) in Paris, Dec. 2017; North American Regional Science (NARSC) in Vancouver, Nov. 2017; EFMD Solvay Job Fair in Brussels, Sep. 2017; IESE Research Workshop in Barcelona, Nov. 2016; IESE Brown-bag seminar in Barcelona, Mar. 2016

WORKING PAPERS

• Memarian, M., Firm’s Profitability in Smart Cities Firms located in smarter cities are more profitable. Social cohesion, as one of the key indicators of smart cities partially explains the link between a firm located in a smart city and its profitability. We use IESE Cities in Motion index (ICIM), as a proxy to compare smart cities, and all key indicators in calculating ICIM index for 11 most populated metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in the US. We find that firms located in smarter MSAs/cities are more profitable: on average a 1% higher ICIM of a smart MSA results in a 0.13% higher profitability of firms located in this MSA. • Memarian, M., Economies of Agglomeration and Firm’s Investment This paper shows how firms' investments are sensitive to local economies of agglomeration. By studying firms located in the 95 most populated U.S. MSAs, I explore the casual effect of local agglomeration – in terms of the potential density increase of the areas where firms are located – on firms’ investment decisions and growth. I show that firms located in more urban agglomerated areas with higher potential for density increase present higher levels of investments and issue higher amounts of debt. These results are explained by network effects and other potential benefits caused by the economies of scale fostered by city growth and the availability of investment opportunities. Conferences: 2018 Global Finance Conference, July 2018 in Paris • Memarian, M., Urban Density, Corporate Real Estate Holdings and Firms’ Stock Returns I focus on the question: do urban characteristics of the areas in which firms are located influence the effect of firms' corporate real estate holdings on their stock returns? Tüzel (2010) argued that the proportion of real estate held by firms has a significant positive effect on the cross-section of expected stock returns. She explains this positive effect through the slow rate of depreciation for real estate holdings. Accordingly, she argues that firms with more real estate holdings are more vulnerable to bad productivity shocks and they are more risky, which leads them to have higher expected stock returns. In this paper, I explore this causal relationship by considering location characteristics. I examine whether this positive impact of real estate holdings on stock returns is affected by adding into the equation the potential density increase of the area in which the focal firm is located. I show that the positive effect of real estate ratio on firm’s excess stock returns is washed out, and turns to be significantly negative after considering the effect of potential density increase.

RESEARCH AFFILIATIONS

2014-present Research Assistant, IESE Business School, Barcelona, Spain 2016-present Brown-bag Seminars Coordinator (Quant fields), IESE Business School, Barcelona, Spain

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

2015-present Teaching Assistant, Corporate Finance (MBA), IESE Business School, Barcelona, Spain 2009-2010 Teaching Assistant, Financial Management (Master), Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran 2005-2006 Teaching Assistant, Mathematical Planning (Undergrad.) University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran 2005-2006 Teaching Assistant, General Mathematics I & II (Undergrad.) University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

HONORS AND AWARDS

2013-2018 Doctoral fellowship, IESE Business School, Barcelona, Spain 2009 Ranked 26th in Social- Economical System Engineering National Master Exam among more than 15000 participants, Iran 2004 Ranked in top 1 percentile in Nationwide University Entrance Exam among more than 450,000 participants, Iran

WORK EXPERIENCE

2011-2012 Market research Specialist, Electrogen Company, Tehran, Iran 2009 Expert at Simulation Laboratory, Razi Metallurgy Research Center, Tehran, Iran 2008 Intern, Nargan Company Engineers and Constructors, Tehran, Iran

SKILLS Computer: STATA, MATLAB, Microsoft Office Languages: English, Persian, Spanish (B1 level), and Arabic (basic)

REFERENCES

Carles Vergara-Alert Miguel Antón Associate Professor of Finance and Real Estate Associate Professor of Financial Management IESE Business School, University of Navarra IESE Business School, University of Navarra (+34) 93 253 4200 (+34) 93 253 4200 [email protected] [email protected]

Mireia Giné Ahmad Rahnema Alavi Assistant Professor of Financial Management Professor of Financial Management IESE Business School, University of Navarra Chair for Energy and Social Development (+34) (+34) 93 253 4200 Chairman, Financial Management Department [email protected] Deputy Dean for the Faculty IESE Business School, University of Navarra (+34) 93 253 43 27 [email protected]