About

Nuno Clara is an Associate Professor in the Finance area at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. He received his PhD in Finance from London Business School. His research focuses on Asset Pricing, Micro data for Macro Models, and Household Finance. Prior to earning his PhD, Nuno worked in private equity, concentrating on distress and growth/mezzanine investments, as well as in economic consulting.

Research topics

• Macroeconomics
• Economics
• Finance
• Monetary economics
• Financial economics

Selected publications

• The Value of Mortgage Choice: Payment Structure and Contract Length

  Bank of Canada Research · 2026-03-03

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  We study how households choose between three mortgage contracts with different payment structures: fixed-rate fixed-payment, variable-rate variable-payment, and a hybrid variable-rate fixed-payment mortgage where interest rate changes affect principal repayment rather than payment size. This hybrid contract, which is offered in only a few countries around the world, gives households additional flexibility to insure against payment risk while exposing them to the risk of larger future mortgage balances. We model these mortgage types simultaneously and show that welfare is substantially improved when all three contracts are available for households to choose from. Our calibrated model matches mortgage choice patterns in Canada, where all these options are offered with short terms. We demonstrate that restricting contract choice or mandating long terms, as in the U.S. system, can lead to substantial welfare losses by limiting risk management strategies and increasing mortgage pricing ex-ante.

  PublisherDOI

• Investments that make our homes greener: The role of regulation

  Journal of Financial Economics · 2026-01-21 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Natural Disasters, Property Insurance, and Housing Markets

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2026-01-01

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Investments that Make our Homes Greener: The Role of Regulation

  Mendeley Data · 2025-12-29

  datasetOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Replication package for: Investments that Make our Homes Greener: The Role of Regulation

  PublisherDOI

• When Discounted Rates End: The Costs of Taking Action in the Mortgage Market

  Review of Financial Studies · 2025-12-02

  article

  Abstract We combine administrative data with a life cycle structural model that exploits the unique features of the U.K. mortgage market to analyze the sources of inaction and to estimate borrowers’ nonpecuniary remortgaging costs. The utility costs needed to generate a given level of inaction depend on monetary gains from remortgaging and on the importance of those monetary gains for agents, which in turn depend on the (endogenously determined) marginal utility of consumption. The model results reveal significant nonpecuniary costs of action that, when measured as a proportion of borrower income, are larger for the young and for lower-income households.

  PublisherDOI

• The Value of Heterogeneous Mortgage Contracts

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Borrow now, pay even later: A quantitative analysis of student debt payment plans

  Journal of Financial Economics · 2024-06-25 · 4 citations

  articleOpen accessCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Demand Elasticities, Nominal Rigidities and Asset Prices

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2023-01-01 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Effects of the Use of 100% Biodiesel (B100) Obtained from Used Vegetable Oils on the Consumption, Emissions, and Performance of Vehicles and Equipment.

  2023-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  The transportation sector is one that has had more hurdle conversion to renewable energy sources. The purpose of this research is to determine whether a renewable source of energy like 100% biodiesel (B100) could be used in the vehicles and equipment of a fleet that supports an air force squadron instead of conventional diesel fuel. To accomplish this, a selection of vehicles and machinery was examined for three months while the working procedure remained as usual, and then introduce a change in the fuel type, using biodiesel considering the same monitoring process during a similar period. This made it possible to compare any modifications that might have been made to fuel consumption, performance, emissions, maintenance, and reliability. The findings demonstrated that, with an average increase of less than 5%, using biodiesel does not result in a noticeable rise in fuel consumption. Additionally, there is a slight decline in the power that is available from the engine, however at less severe levels than anticipated. Depending on the engine, and the operation mode, there are a variety of emission-related scenarios, but overall, NOx and CO2 emissions were reduced. Additionally, it was confirmed that there were no important concerns with the operation of the machinery or vehicles; the only issue of notice was the requirement to anticipate the replacement of a few fuel filters.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Borrow Now, Pay Even Later: A Quantitative Analysis of Student Debt Payment Plans

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2022-01-01 · 14 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• João F. Cocco

  London Business School

  23 shared

• John Y. Campbell

  17 shared

• Michael Boutros

  6 shared

• Howard Kung

  London Business School

  4 shared

• Paulo Matos de Carvalho

  Instituto Politécnico de Leiria

  4 shared

• Luís Serrano

  4 shared

• Diogo Silva

  Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa

  4 shared

• Francisco Gomes

  3 shared