Leonardo Gambacorta

Leonardo Gambacorta is head of Monetary Policy in the Monetary and Economics Department. Previously he was head of the Money and Credit Unit in the Economic Outlook and Monetary Policy Department of the Bank of Italy. He holds a MSc in Economics from Warwick University and a PhD from the University of Pavia. He worked first as a financial analyst in the Supervision Department of Milan Branch of the Bank of Italy before becoming head of the Banking Sector Unit of the former Research Department. In 2002-2003 he spent a period as visiting scholar at the NBER. Author of many articles on the monetary transmission mechanism, his other research interests include: the study of the financial structure of advanced and emerging economies, banks' profitability and the business cycle, the links between financial stability and monetary policy, the optimal institutional arrangement for a monetary union, the functioning of the securitization market.

Fields of interest

• Macroeconomics
• Monetary policy

Selected Publications

• "The Bank Lending Channel: Lessons from the Crisis" (with D. Marques), Economic Policy, April, 2011.
• "Bank Profitability and Taxation" (with U. Albertazzi), Journal of Banking and Finance", Vol. 34, pp 2801-2810, 2010.
• "Bank Risk and Monetary Policy" (with Y. Altunbas and D. Marques), Journal of Financial Stability, Vol. 6, n.3, pp. 121-129, 2010.
• "Securitization and the Bank Lending Channel" (with Y. Altunbas and D. Marques), European Economic Review, Vol. 53, No. 5, pp.996-1009, 2009.
• "How Do Banks Set Interest Rates?", European Economic Review, Vol. 52, No. 5, pp.792-819, 2008.
• "Does Bank Capital Affect Lending Behaviour?" (with P.E. Mistrulli), Journal of Financial Intermediation, Vol. 13, No. 4, pp. 436-457, 2004.