Biography
Serena Fatica is a principal research economist and team leader at the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission, where she also serves as co-leader of the portfolio of projects on the “Drivers of competitiveness”. Previously, she worked as an economist in the Commission’s Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs. She holds a PhD in Economics from the Catholic University of Leuven.
At the JRC, she coordinates scientific activities on finance and the finance-real economy nexus to support EU policymaking. Her recent research on sustainable finance examines the impacts of climate and nature-related risks on firms’ financial vulnerabilities, and financing of the green transition, including notably market-based funding. She led the research activities that provided scientific underpinning to the development of the European Green Bond Standard. Earlier in her career, she worked on fiscal policy and taxation. Her research has been published in academic journals such as the Journal of Banking and Finance, the Journal of Corporate Finance, the Journal of Financial Stability, and others. She is ranked among the top 5% economists worldwide in Repec (last 10 years publications).
Her current research focuses on issues related to access to finance as a key driver of competitiveness to inform policy formulation under the Savings and Investment Union. In particular, she investigates the dynamics of savings and investment patterns, financial integration and risk sharing within the EU, and cross-border financial exposures at the global level. In this context, as a Visiting Fellow, she is developing research on geopolitical risks to identify and anticipate risks and vulnerabilities arising from existing financial linkages.