Faculty
Emil Verner is the Albert F. (1942) and Jeanne P. Clear Career Development Associate Professor of Global Management and an Associate Professor of Finance at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Verner’s research focuses on the connection between financial markets and the macroeconomy in both advanced and emerging markets. His recent research examines the role of household credit markets in amplifying business cycle fluctuations. In related work, Verner has also studied the real economic consequences of banking sector distress during financial crises around the world over the past 150 years.
Verner received his undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Copenhagen and his PhD in economics from Princeton University.
Current Research Focus: Verner's current research focuses on the connection between financial markets and economic activity, both in advanced and emerging markets. In several recent studies, he has examined the role of credit markets in amplifying business cycle fluctuations. In related work, Verner has also studied the real economic consequences of banking sector distress during financial crises around the world over the past 150 years. Finally, Verner’s work also explores how finance affects society more broadly, including the role that financial distress has played in the recent rise in populism.
Featured Publication
"Household Debt and Business Cycles Worldwide."Mian, Atif, Amir Sufi, and Emil Verner. The Quarterly Journal of Economics Vol. 132, No. 4 (2017): 1755-18171. SSRN Preprint. Out of sample results. The Economist. Equitable Growth. NBER Digest. Appendix.
Sastry, Parinitha, Emil Verner, and David Marques-Ibanez, Working Paper. 2024. European Central Bank Working Paper Series No. 2921.
Müller, Karsten and Emil Verner. The Review of Economic Studies (2023): rdad112.
Gyongyosi, Gyozo, Judit Rariga, and Emil Verner, MIT Sloan Working Paper 6835-22. Cambridge, MA: MIT Sloan School of Management, December 2022.
Correia, Sergio, Stephan Luck, and Emil Verner. The Journal of Economic History Vol. 82, No. 4 (2022): 917-957. SSRN Preprint.
Verner, Emil. In Leveraged: The New Economics of Debt and Financial Fragility, edited by Moritz Schularick, University of Chicago Press, 2022. Replication Kit.
Voluntary climate commitments by financial institutions aren’t having a positive impact, research finds. But banks do have time to reverse course and make progress.
“Overall, it seems like there have been substantial commitments that have not really translated into meaningful changes in these banks’ business models."
"To prevent failures and crises, banks need to be really focused on solvency and capitalization."
What we are trying to understand is what do bank failures look like throughout history and which theories are most consistent with that history.
New research by Emil Verner found that since 2018 banks had reduced lending 20 percent to sectors they had targeted in their climate goals.
"Populist parties like to exploit divisions or cleavages in society between the 'good' ordinary people, and the elites or foreigners."
