Thorsten Beck

Short Biography

Thorsten Beck is currently professor of banking and finance at The Business School (formerly Cass) in London. He is also Director of the Florence School of Banking and Finance and will take up a Chair of Financial Stability at the European University Institute in September 2021.  He is a research fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and the CESifo. He was professor of economics from 2008 to 2014 and the founding chair of the European Banking Center  from 2008 to 2013 at Tilburg University. Previously he worked in the research department of the World Bank from 1997 to 2008 and, over the past 12 years, has worked as consultant for – among others -  the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, the BIS, the IMF, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Commission, and the German Development Corporation. His research, academic publications and policy work have focused on two major questions: What is the relationship between finance and economic development? What policies are needed to build a sound and effective financial system? In addition to numerous academic publications in leading economics and finance journals, he has co-authored several policy reports on access to finance, financial systems in Africa and cross-border banking and he has research and policy experience across a large number of countries across the world. In addition to presentation at numerous academic conferences, including several keynote addresses, he is invited regularly to policy panels across Europe. He holds a PhD from the University of Virginia and an MA from the University of Tübingen in Germany. He is also Co-editor of the Journal of Banking and Finance and member of the Advisory Scientific Committee of the European Systemic Risk Board.

Selected publications

Recent work:

• Out with the New, In with the Old? Bank Supervision and the Composition of Firm Investment (joint with Miguel Ampudia and Alex Popov).
• Are Banks Catching Corona? Effects of COVID on Lending in the U.S. (joint with Jan Keil), Covid Economics Vetted and Real-Time Papers 61, December 2020.
• Emergency loans and consumption – evidence from COVID-19 in Iran (joint with Mohamad Hoseini, Covid Economics Vetted and Real-Time Papers 45, August 2020.
• COVID-19 in Emerging Markets: Firm-Survey Evidence (joint with Burton Flynn and Mikael Homanen), Covid Economics Vetted and Real-Time Papers 38, July 2020
• National Containment Policies and International Cooperation (joint with Wolf Wagner), Covid Economics Vetted and Real-Time Papers 8, April 2020
• Liquidity Creation, Investment, and Growth (joint with Robin Doettling, Thomas Lambert and Mathijs Van Dijk)
• Bank Resolution Regimes and Systemic Risk (joint with Deyan Radev and Isabel Schnabel)