Antonio Mele

Antonio Mele is a Full Professor of Finance at the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) and the Swiss Finance Institute (SFI), where he has held a Senior Chair since 2011. He is affiliated with the Faculty of Economic Sciences and the Institute of Finance (IFin) at USI. Additionally, he is a Research Fellow in the Financial Economics program at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) in London.

Education:

• PhD in Economics, University of Paris
• BSc in Economics, LUISS University, Rome

Antonio Mele's research spans a wide range of topics in financial economics. His primary areas of expertise include capital market volatility, the interplay between financial markets and the macroeconomy, uncertainty and volatility in financial markets, interest rates and credit markets, and information in securities markets. He also works on econometrics and numerical methods in finance. His recent research interests extend to public debt sustainability, fiscal reforms and financial market behavior, and economic history since World War I. His work is characterized by a strong integration of theoretical modeling, empirical analysis, and practical applications in financial markets.

His publications, featured in top journals like the Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Economic Studies, Review of Financial Studies, and Journal of Monetary Economics, reflect a consistent focus on volatility measurement and pricing. Key themes across his 15 most recent works include the development of model-free volatility indices for fixed income markets (such as SRVIX, TYVIX, VXTLT, and Credit VIX), variance swaps, the role of uncertainty in macroeconomic fluctuations, and the design of financial instruments for hedging interest rate and credit risk. His research bridges academic theory and real-world financial innovation.

Scientific Awards and Recognition:

• Research Fellow, Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), London
• Senior Chair, Swiss Finance Institute (SFI)
• Member, Group of Economic Advisers, European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA), 2014–2015
• Member, Securities and Markets Stakeholder Group, ESMA, 2015–2017

Antonio Mele has had a significant impact beyond academia through his advisory roles and financial innovations. He consulted with central banks and regulatory bodies on capital market volatility, securitization, and credit regulation. He served on ESMA’s advisory bodies between 2014 and 2017. His most notable industry contributions include the co-invention of exchange-traded volatility indices for interest rate swaps, government bonds, and credit markets, adopted by the Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe) and S&P Dow Jones Indices. These tools provide real-time measures of uncertainty in fixed income markets and have become standard benchmarks for risk management and trading. He has also authored a major graduate-level textbook on Financial Economics (MIT Press, 2022) and several other books on volatility.

Laboratories and Research Teams:
Antonio Mele leads research initiatives in financial economics, particularly in the areas of volatility and fixed income markets. He has collaborated extensively with Yoshiki Obayashi on the development of volatility indices and pricing models. His work is associated with the Institute of Finance (IFin) at USI and the Swiss Finance Institute, which serve as hubs for research in finance and macro-finance.