Chiara Fumagalli

Chiara Fumagalli is Associate Professor of Economics at Bocconi University since 2006. Since 2018 she is Director of the BACHELOR IN ECONOMICS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES.

Prof. Fumagalli is an applied micro-economist, whose research covers the fields of industrial organization, corporate finance and international trade. Her research in these areas has been published in leading academic journals, such as the American Economic Review, the Journal of Financial Economics and the Rand Journal of Economics. (See here her Google scholar citations)

Much of her recent work has been concerned with competition policy and the activity of diversified business groups.

The work of Chiara Fumagalli in competition policy is mainly focused on the economics of exclusionary practices. On this topic she has published a book 'Exclusionary Practices. The Economics of Monopolisation and Abuse of Dominance' (joint with M. Motta and C. Calcagno) Cambridge University Press (2018). The purpose of the book is to develop a general analytical framework, which encompasses and extends established as well as recent theories, and to identify clear and workable criteria that can guide antitrust agencies deal with exclusionary practices. The book will also review the key case-law (at least in the EU and the US) and will discuss some interesting anti-trust cases more in detail. Since January 2014, Chiara Fumagalli has been appointed by the European Commissioner member of the Economic Advisory Group on Competition Policy (EAGCP).

Concerning business groups, Chiara Fumagalli has studied - both from the theoretical and the empirical perspective – the interaction between the activity of Internal Capital Markets and the competitive behaviour of affiliated firms. She will continue investigating the distinct features of group-affiliated firms and the different way they react to shocks as compared to stand-alone firms as well as multi-segment firms. In this respect, she is investigating the activity of Internal Labor Markets within business groups as a response to hiring and firing frictions that affect the external labor market. Her analysis shows that ILMs are a source of resilience and flexibility for diversified and complex organizations such as buisness groups. This analysis represents a preliminary step to tackle more fundamental questions, such as what are the determinants of group formation and diversification and what explains the evolution of groups in different institutional environments.

Prof. Fumagalli is Research Fellow of CEPR, Baffi Center, IGIER and CSEF (Università di Napoli). Since 2022 she is Associate Editor of the International Journal of Industrial Organization. She is member of ACE (Association of Competition Economics) and associate of CRESSE. Since 2018 she is member of the Executive Committe of EARIE (European Association of Research in Industrial Economics) and since 2019 of the Oxera Economics Council.
She earned her Laurea degree in Economics at Bocconi University in 1994 and her PhD in Economics at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona) in 2000.

RESEARCH AREAS

Competition policy. Corporate Finance. Multinational Firms.