José Liberti

Senior Economic Research Fellow (2018-2019)

José María Liberti was a senior economic research fellow in the Office of Economic and Risk Analysis. He comes to the PCAOB from Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, where he is the Joseph Jr. and Carol Levy Chair in Entrepreneurship and Clinical Professor of Finance and William M. Scholl Professor of Finance at Kellstadt Graduate School of Business, DePaul University. He is also a research fellow of the European Banking Center and session research fellow at The George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State at The University Chicago Booth School of Business. He also holds an affiliation with both the Heizer Center for Private Equity and Venture Capital, and the John L. Ward Center for Family Enterprises at Kellogg School of Management.

José María was previously Assistant Professor of Finance at London Business School, Visiting Assistant Professor at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and Associate Professor of Finance at Tilburg University. He has also taught at CEMFI, Central Bank of Brazil/IDB, IAE Aix-en-Provence Graduate School of Management, Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the Indian School of Business.

José María's research lies in the boundaries of corporate finance, financial intermediation, and organizational economics. Part of his attention has been drawn to understand how incentives, allocation of authority, and types of information are used in the actual decision-making process of individuals. Recent work has examined the role rotation among agents as a mechanism to alleviate moral hazard in communication and how sharing on public information may impact coordination problems among borrowers. His work is published at The Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Economics, Management Science, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, and Review of Corporate Finance Studies. José María received the Brattle Award (First Prize) for the best paper in corporate finance awarded annually by the American Finance Association. He has also received twice the Brattle Distinguished paper award. His work has been presented at numerous universities and governmental bodies around the world.

José María has served as an economic consultant at the Argentinean Ministry of Economics, Work and Public Services. Before continuing with his graduate studies, Jose Maria worked at Citibank N.A. as a Corporate Financial Advisor and in the Risk Management and Investment Banking Divisions in Buenos Aires and New York. He has a combined background of corporate and investment banking experience in local and international assignments with special emphasis on private enterprises, closely held firms, and family firms. José María is senior advisor to the equity placement desk at Capstone Partners and senior advisor at Freedom Capital Markets. José María is also involved in Point 72 Asset Management Academy development efforts. José María also helps family enterprises around the world focusing on organizational and governance design, shareholder agreements and sustainability of ownership structures, and shareholder education and development.

Liberti was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He received a bachelor's and master's degree in economics from the Universidad de San Andrés (UdeSA) in Buenos Aires. He moved to the United States in 1998 and earned both a Masters and a PhD in Economics from The University of Chicago. His professional experience includes working in Citibank N.A. as a Corporate Financial Advisor and in the Risk Management and Investment Banking Divisions in Buenos Aires and New York.