BPI | FUNDAÇÃO "LA CAIXA"
CHAIR PROFESSOR
in Responsible Finance
VICE-DEAN OF FACULTY AND RESEARCH
at Nova SBE
About
Miguel Ferreira is the BPI–Fundação “la Caixa” Chair Professor of Responsible Finance at Nova School of Business and Economics (Nova SBE). He serves as Vice-Dean at Nova SBE, Director of the Nova Finance Knowledge Center, Coordinator of the financial literacy initiative “Finance for All”, and National Financial Literacy Ambassador. He is also a Research Associate of the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI), a Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), and a Research Associate of the G53 Financial Literacy and Personal Finance Research Network. He holds a PhD in Finance from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, a Master’s in Economics from Nova SBE, and a Bachelor’s in Business from ISCTE-IUL.
His research interests span household finance, corporate finance, and sustainable finance. His work has been published in leading academic journals, including the American Economic Review, Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, and Management Science. He ranks among the top 100 most prolific authors in the top three finance journals worldwide and is the most cited Portuguese economist since 2000. He has received several major research grants and awards, including European Research Council Starting and Advanced Grants, the La Caixa Foundation Social Research Call, and funding from the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia. He is a former President of the European Finance Association.
He teaches finance in the bachelor’s program and serves as an independent board member at BPI Asset Management. He has extensive experience in executive education and has acted as an expert witness and consultant for companies, financial institutions, central banks, and government agencies.
Recent Work
with Diogo Mendes and André Silva, 2025
We study the effects of adult financial education using a large-scale randomized controlled trial linked to administrative credit register data. The intervention consists of a structured ten-hour personal finance course involving more than 10,000 people in Portugal. Six months after the program, treated individuals exhibit significant improvements in financial knowledge, especially among women, low-income and low-education individuals, and participants with low baseline financial literacy. The intervention also improves self-reported confidence, financial attitudes, and behaviors, including budgeting, saving, retirement planning, informed use of financial products, and financial market participation. Using loan-level administrative data, we find significant changes in debt management: treated individuals reduce reliance on high-cost credit card balances while preserving credit access, experience fewer delinquencies, and are more likely to renegotiate mortgages. Our results suggest that financial education can reduce financial literacy gaps and improve household balance sheet management, even within relatively affluent populations in high-income countries.
Media Highlights
03/06/2025
04/2025 - 07/2025
