I am a PhD Student in Finance at the Swiss Finance Institute at USI Lugano.
I will be on the 2025-2026 academic job market.
My research is on Information and Financial Markets, with a focus on:
- Institutional Investors
- Data Economy
- Asset Management
Job Market Paper
Asset (and Data) Managers Recipient of the Inquire Europe 2025 Research Prize
WFA Brattle Group Ph.D. Candidate Award
INVERCO Best Paper in Asset Management at 32nd Finance Forum
Best Ph.D. Student Paper at the 7th FutFinInfo Conference
FMARC Best Ph.D. Student Paper
▪ Abstract [+]
This paper studies the direct impact of new technologies on the asset management industry.
I show that technological innovations substantially improve fund managers’ ability to target customer demand and attract capital inflows, with implications for the industry’s structure. Exploiting information from their websites’ codes, I track when fund managers start collecting and analyzing customers’ data using tools like Google Analytics.
Funds adopting such technologies attract 1.5% higher annual flows, with the effect being concentrated in retail share classes. Additionally, they expand product offerings and charge higher fees. The effects decrease with competition as more funds within the same category adopt similar technologies.
Overall, these results show that technological innovation in asset management extends beyond portfolio allocation decisions to impact how funds attract and retain capital. This evidence highlights the economic importance of managers learning from investors’ data.
USI Lugano
Via Buffi 13, Lugano - 6900
Switzerlandmarco.zanotti[at]usi.ch
SSRN