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Maria Guadalupe

Professor of Economics

Biography

Maria Guadalupe is Professor of Economics at INSEAD. Maria obtained a PhD in Economics from the London School of Economics in 2003. Prior to joining INSEAD in 2012, she was an Associate Professor in the Economics and Finance department at the Columbia Business School where she held the Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Chair in Leadership and Ethics. Maria has been a visiting scholar at MIT and Princeton and is currently a research fellow at the Center for European Policy Research (CEPR) and the IZA Institute of Labor Economics. She is also a member of the Strategy Research Initiative.

Maria has taught MBA and Executive MBA courses on Strategy, Structure and Incentives; Strategy and Regional Competitiveness; Growth and Sustainability in Brazil; as well as PhD courses on Industrial Organisation and Organisational Economics.

Her research explores the interactions between firms’ organisational choices and markets, with a focus on firm performance. She has studied how globalisation and the competitive environment faced by firms shape their internal organisational choices, including pay levels, incentives, executive compensation, and hierarchical structures. She has also studied the effect of corporate governance arrangements on firm performance. Her recent work focuses on how multinationals select their foreign targets and examines the productivity consequences of the changes in firm boundaries.

Maria’s work has been published in top economics, finance, and management journals such as the American Economic Review, Journal of Finance, Management Science, Journal of Labor and Economics, and American Economic Journal: Applied Economics. She has been awarded a number of prizes for her contributions to research including the Brattle Distinguished Paper prize awarded by the American Finance Association and the Jaime Fernandez de Araoz prize in Corporate Finance. She is an Associate Editor of the Management Science and a Co-Editor of the Journal of Economics and Management Strategy.

Latest posts

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Leadership & Organisations

Strategies for Building and Boosting Psychological Safety

M. Mortensen, M. Guadalupe, N. Furr, H. Bresman

INSEAD research highlights practical approaches to integrate psychological safety into team dynamics.

Economics & Finance

The Importance of Soft Skills in Driving Productivity

M. Guadalupe, B. Ng

The economy of the future requires a workforce with strong soft skills. Investing in these crucial skills can result in increased productivity.

Leadership & Organisations

Aligning Individual and Organisational Values

M. Guadalupe, Z. Kinias, F. Schloderer

How employees’ personal values fit within their organisation.
1 comment

Strategy

The Fundamentals of Transforming from Matrix to Agile

Y. Doz, M. Guadalupe

Nothing less than an evolution of strategy, structure, processes, people and technology will do.
3 comments

Strategy

Not Everyone Can Be Agile

Y. Doz, M. Guadalupe

An essential checklist for Agile aspirants.
2 comments

Economics & Finance

Turn the Office Into a Lab

Using randomized controlled trials, firms can find out what is really going wrong (and right) in their organisations.

Leadership & Organisations

Why Firms Should Conduct Randomized Controlled Trials

Field experiments help companies to make better decisions, while findings aid academic work.
3 comments

Leadership & Organisations

Three Ways to Make Your Organisation Agile

Your competition is no longer who it used to be.

Career

How to Get More Women to Work in Tech

Lucia Del Carpio & Maria Guadalupe

Role models and reassurance about potential success can impact women’s career decisions.
2 comments

Leadership & Organisations

Gender Bending Can Challenge Our Biases

Would you think differently about Donald Trump if he were a woman?

Economics & Finance

Anti-Takeover Provisions Backfire

The more protected the firm, the less takeover premium it can command.

Economics & Finance

Why You Should Give Investors Greater Say on CEO Pay

Even non-binding shareholder votes on CEO pay improve firm performance and shareholder value.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Collaborating to Compete

Maria Guadalupe

The Dutch flower cluster shows how much value can be found in a commoditised sector that collaborates before it competes

Economics & Finance

Why Do Governments So Often Disappoint?

Maria Guadalupe, Subi Rangan

Notwithstanding serious effort and dedication, so often there is a shortfall between peoples' expectations of government and what government delivers. At a recent symposium on government and progress, participants explored why and suggested that a new social contract is needed between public leaders and citizens.

Leadership & Organisations

The Cause and Effect of Better Decision-Making

M. Guadalupe, L.Del Carpio

How scientific evidence beats gut feelings when it comes to making better decisions for your company.
1 comment