Francesco Franzoni

Francesco Franzoni is Professor of Finance at the Università della Svizzera italiana and a research fellow at the Center for Economic Policy Research. Professor Franzoni's research has been published in the top finance journals and featured in the international press.

Expertise

Professor Franzoni is deepening his study of the pros and cons of active versus passive asset management. He has recently been focusing on competition within the ETF marketplace. His findings reveal that ETF providers have followed a twofold competitive strategy, on the one hand reducing prices on broad-based products, on the other generating monopoly rents from boutique products. Data further shows that specialized and thematic ETFs exhibit disappointing performance in the five years after launch as they contain fashionable stocks that are likely overvalued at the time of launch. Overall, investors need to be aware that investing in specialized and thematic ETFs, instead of broad-based benchmarks, comes with several downsides, such as lower diversification benefits, paying higher fees, and investing in overvalued assets. Professor Franzoni actively participates in SFI Knowledge Exchange activities that focus on ETFs, as well as on opportunities in active asset management.