Pietro Veronesi

Field of research: Finance

What’s so exciting about Finance?

Finance is an extremely broad area of research, which encompasses all actors that play key roles in the economy: households, firms, banks, governments, foreign countries, etc. They are all tied into each other through an incredible web of financial connections mediated by financial intermediaries and financial markets. Finance studies how such connections affect the operations of the economy at large by looking at the individual actors. In my recent research, I am very excited to study the interaction between governments and financial markets, and how uncertainty about what the government may do affects the households' investment decisions, which in turn impact firms and banks. It is super fascinating. 

Why did you choose a research career, and not something else?

I have always been an extremely curious person, about everything. I do not think one can be a researcher without an innate curiosity about how things work, and the unwavering willingness to find out. Research was a perfect fit for me. I just fell in love with it. It is a passion in the same way musicians are passionate about music. When you discover something that is new and important, it galvanizes you, it gives you that vibe through your skin that it is unparalleled by anything else. Only this explains why one stays up all night in front of a computer to solve equations or run statistical analysis. Nobody is telling us to do it. There is no boss who is telling me to do that. I just do it because I want to find out. It is a passion. 

What do you hope students will take away from PREDOC’s offerings?

I am an economist, and when I see that some groups are not represented in all jobs for no good underlying reason, the only thing that I can think of is that there is a friction somewhere that is keeping the best people from the best jobs. It is a misallocation of resources, that cannot be good for anyone, not for the groups that are underrepresented, but not even for the groups that are represented, who are missing out the input from a potentially strong group of researchers. PREDOC was born in 2020 with the mission of taking down these frictions. PREDOC offerings, such as PREDOC summer course, the platforms with pre-doc positions and undergraduate RA opportunities, the information sessions, and so on, are designed with just one intent: Take down the frictions that may keep talented students away from an exciting career in research. When I was undergraduate, I had no idea of much fun one can have by being a researcher. I almost started a job in a bank, but then got accepted to a PhD program, and thank God I did not go a boring job in a bank where somebody tells me what to do (I am too independent. It would have been difficult for me). And it is amazing I can now have all this fun by doing research on things that I really like, and even be paid very well to do it. And I would like all students independent of where they come from to have that opportunity of doing what I have been doing. That's what I hope PREDOC students can take away from our offerings: a new passion for research.