Gonzalo Maturana joined the Goizueta Business School in 2015 after completing his PhD in Finance at The University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business.
Professor Maturana’s primary research focuses are in corporate finance, household finance, real estate finance, and conflicts of interest. His research has been published in leading academic journals and has also appeared in nonacademic outlets such as Bloomberg, MarketWatch, and the CFA digest. Among his research awards are the Michael J. Brennan Award for best paper in the Review of Financial Studies in 2017 and the Rising Scholar Award for best paper by a young researcher in the Review of Financial Studies in 2020.
Prior to joining the faculty at Goizueta, Professor Maturana held positions at the University of Chile and IM Trust, a Chilean investment bank. At Goizueta, he has taught Corporate Finance, Financial Services, and Applied Methods in Corporate Finance.
Education
The University of Texas at Austin - McCombs School of Business
PhD
Finance
University of Chile - Center for Applied Economics
MA
Applied Economics
University of Chile - School of Engineering
BS
Engineering
Areas of Expertise
Corporate Finance
Household Finance
Securitization
Real Estate
Conflicts of Interest
Publications
Do Property Rehabs Affect Neighboring Property Prices?
Journal of Urban Economics
Rohan Ganduri and Gonzalo Maturana
2024-09-01
We examine the effect of real estate owned property rehabilitations on neighboring property prices. We find that house prices around a rehabilitated property increase 2.3 percentage points following the rehabilitation. Moreover, the average rehabilitation generates aggregate welfare benefits 3.8 times greater than the amount invested. Rehabilitation externalities are stronger for longer rehabilitations and greater rehabilitation investments, and they are prevalent even in areas with high rates of foreclosures. The spillover effect of rehabilitations operates through their salience rather than through a reduction in the supply of distressed properties, through property appraisals, or through homebuyers with higher income moving into the neighborhood.
How Has COVID-19 Impacted Research Production in Economics and Finance?
Review of Financial Studies
Samuel Kruger, Gonzalo Maturana, and Jordan Nickerson
2023-08-01
Following the onset of COVID-19, research production in economics and finance (measured by the posting of working papers) increased by 29%. Production increases were widespread across geographies, job titles, departments, and ages with larger increases in top departments and for people under the age of 35. Men and women both experienced production increases with the exception of women between the age of 35 and 49, who experienced no production gains despite large increases for men in the same age group. COVID-19 increased reliance on past coauthorship networks, with larger production gains for authors that are more central to the network.
Agglomeration, Knowledge Spillovers, and Corporate Investment
Journal of Corporate Finance
William Grieser, Gonzalo Maturana, Ioannis Spyridopoulos, and Santiago Truffa
2022-12-01
Agglomeration is positively correlated with productivity and exhibits substantial heterogeneity across industries. Yet, the connection between agglomeration and corporate investment, an important driver of production, remains relatively underexplored. We study this relation using counterfactuals that account for the empirical distribution of industry size and firm locations, and by employing network methods that exploit firm geographic location and patent citation connections. We find a strong positive relation between industry peers’ proximity, investment externalities, uncertainty, and knowledge capital. Collectively, our evidence supports the notion that knowledge spillovers generate positive investment externalities that drive firm location decisions and explain industry-level agglomeration patterns.
What Drove the 2003–2006 House Price Boom and Subsequent Collapse? Disentangling Competing Explanations
Journal of Financial Economics
John M. Griffin, Samuel Kruger, and Gonzalo Maturana
2021-09-01
Ten years after the financial crisis, the central question of what explains the rise and fall in house prices remains unresolved. We provide a unified framework to examine four excess credit supply variables and three speculation variables that have been proposed in the literature. Credit supply variables, particularly subprime share and worse originator share, strongly relate to future zip-code-level house price changes in the boom and bust, whereas none of the speculation variables consistently relate to house prices within MSAs. Pre-trends, supply elasticity, and depressed areas suggest these relations are not driven by lenders anticipating house price growth.
Collateral Misreporting in the Residential Mortgage-Backed Security Market
Management Science
Samuel Kruger and Gonzalo Maturana
2021-05-01
Securitized mortgage appraisals routinely target pre-specified valuations, 45% of purchase loan appraisals exactly equal purchase prices, and appraisals virtually never fall below purchase prices. As a result, appraisals exceed automated valuation model (AVM) valuations 60% of the time and are 5% higher than AVM valuations on average. High appraisals and indicators of appraisal targeting predict loan delinquency and residential mortgage-backed security (RMBS) losses and are priced at the loan level through higher interest rates, but have essentially no impact on RMBS pricing. Selection bias simulations and unfunded loan application appraisals indicate that high appraisals are intentional. The extent to which appraisals exceed AVM valuations varies across loan officers, mortgage brokers, and appraisers, and high appraisals are associated with more repeat business for appraisers, potentially incentivizing appraisers to inflate their appraisals
Real effects of workers’ financial distress: Evidence from teacher spillovers
Journal of Financial Economics
Gonzalo Maturana and Jordan Nickerson
2020-04-01
This paper studies the effects of financial distress on workers’ productivity, using detailed data from the public school system in Texas. We show that the student passing rate in the median-sized grade decreases by 1.2 percentage points following a declaration of bankruptcy by one teacher in the grade. The effect of financial distress increases with the complexity of the task. Overall, our results suggest a potential feedback effect of worker financial distress on local economic conditions and thus contribute to the understanding of the propagation, and potential amplification, of shocks through a local economy.
Teachers Teaching Teachers: The Role of Workplace Peer Effects in Financial Decisions
Review of Financial Studies
Gonzalo Maturana and Jordan Nickerson
2019-10-01
This paper studies the role of workplace peers in the transmission of information pertinent to an important household financial decision: the mortgage refinancing choice. Exploiting commonalities in teaching schedules of school teachers in Texas to identify peer groups, we find that refinancing activity among teachers’ peers increases their likelihood of refinancing by 20.7%. The effect of peers increases with the potential savings realized upon refinancing and is stronger among younger teachers. Peers also affect teachers’ choice of lender. Overall, our findings suggest that peer interactions greatly reduce a household’s cost of acquiring and processing financial information.
Do labor markets discipline? Evidence from RMBS bankers
Journal of Financial Economics
John M. Griffin, Samuel Kruger, and Gonzalo Maturana
2019-09-01
This paper examines whether employees involved in residential mortgage-backed security (RMBS) securitization experienced internal and external labor market consequences relative to similar non-RMBS employees in the same banks and why. Senior RMBS bankers experienced similar levels of job retention, promotion, and external job opportunities. Even signers of RMBS deals with high loss and misreporting rates or deals implicated in lawsuits experienced no adverse internal or external labor market outcomes. These findings are likely not explained by targeted or delayed employee discipline, small legal fines, or protection due to pending litigation but are consistent with implicit upper-management approval of RMBS activities.
Personal infidelity and professional conduct in 4 settings
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)
John M. Griffin, Samuel Kruger, and Gonzalo Maturana
2019-08-13
We study the connection between personal and professional behavior by introducing usage of a marital infidelity website as a measure of personal conduct. Police officers and financial advisors who use the infidelity website are significantly more likely to engage in professional misconduct. Results are similar for US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) defendants accused of white-collar crimes, and companies with chief executive officers (CEOs) or chief financial officers (CFOs) who use the website are more than twice as likely to engage in corporate misconduct. The relation is not explained by a wide range of regional, firm, executive, and cultural variables. These findings suggest that personal and workplace behavior are closely related.
When Are Modifications of Securitized Loans Beneficial to Investors?
Review of Financial Studies
Gonzalo Maturana
2017-11-01
Loan modification is widely discussed as an alternative to foreclosure, but little research has focused on quantifying its effect on loan performance. I quantify this effect early in the housing crisis by exploiting exogenous variation in the incentives to modify securitized nonagency loans. An additional modification reduces loan losses by 35.8% relative to the average loss; this reduction suggests that the marginal benefit of modification likely exceeded the marginal cost. Consistent with the idea that high-income borrowers may be better equipped to withstand bad economic times, I find that modifications are especially beneficial when borrowers have larger loans.
Did Dubious Mortgage Origination Practices Distort House Prices?
Review of Financial Studies
John M. Griffin and Gonzalo Maturana
2016-07-01
ZIP codes with high concentrations of originators who misreported mortgage information experienced a 75% larger relative increase in house prices from 2003 to 2006 and a 90% larger relative decrease from 2007 to 2012 compared with other ZIP codes. Several causality tests show that high fractions of dubious originators in a ZIP code lead to large price distortions. Originators with high misreporting gave credit to borrowers with high ex ante risk, yet further understated the borrowers' true risk. Overall, excess credit facilitated through dubious origination practices explain much of the regional variation in house prices over a decade.
Who Facilitated Misreporting in Securitized Loans?
Review of Financial Studies
John M. Griffin and Gonzalo Maturana
2016-02-01
This paper examines apparent fraud among securitized nonagency loans using three indicators: unreported second liens, owner occupancy misreporting, and appraisal overstatements. We find that around 48% of loans exhibited at least one indicator of misrepresentation. Surprisingly, misreporting is similar in both low and full documentation loans and is associated with a 51% higher likelihood of delinquency. Two-thirds of loans with unreported second liens had the same originator issuing both the first and second lien. Misrepresentations in MBS pools can explain substantial cross-sectional differences in future losses. Losses were predictable and initiating from apparent fraud by MBS underwriters and loan originators.
It Works on TV - Do Property Rehabs Drive Up Prices in Surrounding Neighborhoods?
When a house is distressed, the negative impact tends to ricochet around its surrounding neighborhood. Distressed homes (e.g. foreclosures) can significantly bring down the value of other homes in the area, as these properties are often poorly maintained and then typically sold at discounted prices
In the past, and particularly in the wake of the 2008 subprime crisis, federal and local governments sought to mitigate this negative effect by incentivizing the rehabilitation of distressed properties through programs like the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP). Until now, there has been some skepticism as to whether or not these kinds of initiatives actually work.
New research by Goizueta Foundation Term Associate Professor of Finance Gonzalo Maturana and Goizueta’s Assistant Professor of Finance Rohan Ganduri might change the narrative definitively. They have analyzed new data that shows that rehabilitation projects not only help to stabilize housing prices in affected neighborhoods but can also actually increase the value of neighboring properties by as much as four percentage points.
Using highly robust, non-parametric statistical analysis methods, Maturana and Ganduri parsed more than 10 years of information on rehabilitated property transactions and real estate prices across the United States. The effect of renovating dilapidated or derelict houses in these areas pushes prices up between 2.3 and four percentage points in their surrounding blocks, they find. And that’s not all.
While the average amount spent by authorities on these renovations comes in at roughly $36,000, their study estimates a societal welfare gain of $134,000 per rehabilitated property—almost four times the cost of the rehabilitation. These insights should provide interesting food for thought for the U.S. Congress and local governments, Maturana notes. After the housing crash in 2008, Congress allocated $6.9 billion in funding to the NSP to help stabilize communities affected by high vacancy and foreclosure rates, but the Department of Housing and Urban Development didn’t find any positive impact on local housing markets at the time.
“Our findings suggest that rehabilitation projects do drive a positive uptick in prices that can help revitalize distressed neighborhoods,” says Maturana. “And they provide very timely support for policy interventions, such as President Biden’s infrastructure spending program which proposes an allocation of $20 billion to rehabilitate 500,000 single-family homes in low-income neighborhoods in the United States.” With the current economy facing some uncertain times this is a topic that is important for everyone. And if you're a reporter looking to know more then let us help.
Gonzalo Maturana is an associate professor of finance at the Goizueta Business School. He is an expert in the areas of corporate, household and real estate finance.
Rohan Ganduri's research interests include banking, credit risk, real estate, household finance, and corporate finance.
Both Gonzalo and Rohan are available to speak to media regarding this topic – simply click on either icon now to arrange an interview today.
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2 min
Want to save on home loans? Just talk to your peers!
For most of us, finance is complex. Yet making financial decisions is part of day-to-day life.
Take mortgages. Around 60 percent of U.S. households have a home mortgage, but how many actually understand its real value? Calculating things like interest rate trade-offs or closing costs is not easy, and research finds that a majority of families make financial mistakes because they fail to understand benefits or savings that might be open to them in refinancing.
There are ways to overcome this kind of “information friction”—the obstacles to understanding that make it hard for people to process complex financial ideas and concepts. One of these is education. Ensuring that people have direct access to clear information can help inform household decisions. That seems pretty basic.
Another, perhaps less understood, mechanism is the “peer effect”—the way we learn from and are influenced by what our peers or colleagues say or do.
A new paper published in the Review of Financial Studies by Gonzalo Maturana, associate professor of finance, takes a fresh look at how the peer effect can help households make better decisions about their mortgages. And he finds that work colleagues and associates can actually have a far greater positive impact on our financial outcomes than we might expect.
Together with Jordan Nickerson from MIT’s Sloan School of Management, Maturana ran a large-scale study of a particular U.S. peer group: public school teachers employed by the state of Texas.
Here’s what the study found: Where there was a lot of mortgage refinancing going on among teachers in a particular school, individuals were a stunning 20.7 percent more likely to refinance their own mortgage. In other words, they were far more disposed to investigate alternatives and take advantage of the better deals on offer. The peer effect was also a critical factor in their subsequent choice of mortgage lender.
Maturana and Nickerson also found that the more savings a particular peer group was making in mortgage repayments, the more refinancing activity there was in that school or teacher network.
It is clear. With financial decisions, the network effect can create a positive feedback loop, said Maturana.
Household finance and mortgages are top of mind and play a part in most American families – and if you are a journalist looking to cover this topic – then let our experts help.
Gonzalo Maturana is an Associate Professor of Finance at the Goizueta Business School. He is an expert in the areas of corporate, household and real estate finance. Gonzalo is available to speak to media regarding this topic – simply click on his icon now to arrange an interview today.
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1 min
Dubious loan origination and the housing collapse
Gonzalo Maturana, assistant professor of finance, and coauthor John M. Griffin (U of Texas) argue that securitization was not the only factor in the recent housing crisis. Their new research indicates that questionable mortgage origination practices played a significant role in the distortions in the 2003 to 2012 real estate boom and bust. Specifically, the underreporting of the true risk profiles of borrowers, including the misreporting of second-liens, helped to drive housing demand and, ultimately, contributed to the crisis. They note, “The process of underreporting key loan attributes can have the by-product of facilitating credit to borrowers who have little ability to repay.” The researchers tested their theory by using county deed records, securitized loan information, house price statistics, and home loan application data from a number of reliable sources to detail the 2003 to 2006 run-up of housing prices and its subsequent 2007 to 2012 collapse. After controlling for securitization, they determined that “originator malfeasance” in certain areas also served to raise the credit supply. Maturana and Griffin concluded that dubious originator practices helped to cause house prices in certain zip codes to increase relative to other areas and eventually led to larger price crashes.
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In the News
CEOs Who Cheat in Bedroom Will Cheat in Boardroom, Study Shows
Bloomberg online
2019-08-09
Cheating on your spouse goes hand in hand with cheating in the workplace.
That’s the conclusion of a provocative new academic study that found a strong correlation between adultery and workplace misconduct by corporate executives and financial advisers.
Why didn’t the bankers with the closest ties to the pre-crisis fraud lose their jobs? In their line of thinking, the fraud was not a feature of the people, but a feature of the asset class.
How J.P. Morgan and Barclays Mistakes Inflated the Housing Bubble
Market Watch online
2015-06-04
Gonzalo Maturana, an assistant professor of finance at Emory University in Atlanta, combed through 3.1 million mortgages originated between 2002 and the end of 2007. More than one-quarter of these loans subsequently defaulted. While looking for inconsistencies in appraisal values and owner-occupancy status, the most interesting part of the investigation exposes how some mortgage securities were riddled with undisclosed second liens. These hidden debts reduced the borrowers’ incentive to repay their obligations. Griffin and his co-author found the gaps by comparing bank securities documents to county courthouse records.
