Luisa Lambertini

Luisa Lambertini is Rector of Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) and Professor of International Finance at both USI and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). She leads the Department of Economics at USI and holds a professorial chair at EPFL's College of Management of Technology (CDM), where she also served as Associate Vice-President for Postgraduate Education, overseeing the Doctoral School and lifelong learning programs.

• PhD in Economics, University of California at Berkeley (1995)
• MSc in Economics, University of Warwick (1989)
• Laurea cum Laude, Università di Bologna (1987)

Her research centers on international finance, macroeconomics, and political economy, with a focus on monetary-fiscal policy interactions, housing and mortgage markets, financial regulation, and macroprudential policies. She develops dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models to analyze financial frictions, credit cycles, and policy transmission mechanisms. Her work bridges theoretical modeling with empirical validation using macroeconomic and financial data.

The 15 most recent publications reflect a consistent research agenda in macro-finance, particularly on the role of housing, mortgage default, capital regulation, and fiscal-monetary coordination in currency unions. Her work often appears in top journals such as American Economic Review, Review of Economic Studies, and Journal of International Economics, demonstrating both theoretical rigor and policy relevance.

Her scientific awards and leadership roles include:

• President, International Banking, Economics and Finance Association (IBEFA), 2019–2020
• Hoover National Fellow
• Member, Advisory Council of the Society for Computational Economics (2016–2019)
• Chair and Vice-President, WISH Foundation at EPFL (promoting women in science)
• Advisor to the European Central Bank, Federal Reserve, and Swiss National Bank

Luisa Lambertini has supervised numerous PhD students and collaborated extensively with researchers such as Yu Wu, Abhik Mukherjee, and Chiara Forlati. She has led multiple funded research projects on financial stability, fiscal policy, and housing markets. Her role as Rector of USI and leadership in EPFL’s postgraduate education underscores her commitment to academic excellence and institutional development.

She is affiliated with the Center for Finance and Insurance (CFI) at EPFL, where her research group focuses on financial institutions, asset pricing, and regulatory policy. The team produces influential working papers and contributes to policy debates on banking regulation and economic resilience.