Marta Cota

Hi! I am a tenure track Assistant Professor at the  Finance Department at Nova SBE in Lisbon. I hold a Ph.D. degree in Economics from CERGE-EI.

My research interests lie between Macroeconomics and Household Finance. I develop structural models that encompass individual expectation heterogeneity and heterogeneity in search frictions. 

My CV is linked here.                      

Working papers:

     Financial Skills and Search in the Mortgage Market (joint work with Ante Sterc) - paper link (working version!)

This paper examines how financial literacy shapes households' mortgage decisions through a structural model of mortgage search. Using a unique U.S. dataset that integrates detailed mortgage information with objective measures of financial literacy, we find that households with lower financial literacy are 4% less likely to engage in mortgage search and end up locking in at 33 basis points higher mortgage rates. Moreover, they are 5.1 p.p. less likely to refinance, which defines a lower bound of $575 in annual mortgage overpayments.  To explore the impact of financial skills and search behavior on mortgage rate outcomes, we develop a mortgage search model that incorporates endogenous financial skill accumulation and heterogeneous search frictions. Our results show that: (i) greater mortgage access increases delinquency risks for less financially skilled households, (ii) targeted financial education can help reduce these risks, and (iii) low mortgage rates primarily benefit financially literate households through refinancing, ultimately contributing to greater consumption inequality. Finally, we find that easier mortgage access, driven by increased information availability, reinforces financial skill accumulation, suggesting that targeted policies may be more effective today than in the past.

Extrapolative Expectations and Retirement Savings - paper link, manuscript accepted at The Review of Finance

This paper examines how biased income expectations affect annual contributions to retirement accounts, highlighting variations across income levels. Empirical findings show that low-income workers are generally pessimistic about future earnings, whereas high-income workers tend to be overly optimistic. I develop a lifecycle model that merges these expectation biases with U.S. 401(k) plan features. The model reveals that biased expectations can account for observed delays in retirement contributions, which increase gradually with tenure. Contributions rise at different rates, with low-income workers starting later than high-income workers. Policy simulations indicate that automatic enrollment boosts initial contributions but results in a relative decline compared to active enrollment. Nonetheless, cumulative savings increase by 4.8 percent on average, with gains surpassing 10 percent for the lowest income quartile. These results highlight the significance of addressing income expectations in retirement policies and show that automatic enrollment can enhance welfare, particularly for lower-income individuals. 

Gender Differences in Savings over the Lifecycle: The Role of Financial Literacy, joint with Marta Morazzoni and Maria Frech (draft avail soon!)

This paper examines gender differences in wealth accumulation through a microfounded model of financial decision-making, and highlights that gender gaps in financial literacy can contribute to gender wealth inequality over the life-cycle. Using data from several US surveys, we show that women are more likely to delegate financial decisions and have lower financial literacy, which however increases after events such as divorce or widowhood, or after shocks to their spouse's health. Moreover, while financial literacy increases women’s investment margins more than men's, its impact is stronger for safe assets accumulation and limited for equity holdings, suggesting a role for subjective financial confidence in shaping their investment margins. Our model highlights how marital dynamics influence financial decisions and underscores the importance of targeted policies to improve women’s financial literacy, promote independence, and reduce gender wealth disparities over the life-cycle.

Work in progress:

"Network Effects and Debt Negotiation", joint with Mauro Mastrogiaccomo and Ante Sterc

"Retirement Savings and Self-Employment in an Ageing Economy ", with Marta Morazzoni