IE Business School Team Wins Research Award

IE Business School Professor Pedro Gete and Bachelor of Business Administration student Kaiyi Yang won the prize for the best research paper at the Annual Meeting of the Spanish Leasing & Renting Association, an honor that rewards research of interest to the sector.

Gete, who chairs IE University’s Finance Department, and Yang studied how the COVID crisis has altered the leasing and renting markets. They uncovered and analyze a new fact of particular interest for the Spanish economy: the boom in leasing of hotels that took place during the pandemic.

“This is a remarkable finding since the volume of leasing contracts fell in all sectors and countries, expect for hotels. It shows that leasing contracts provided financial oxygen to the Spanish hotel industry during very tough times,” Gete explained.

Attendees at the conference applauded the findings and the importance of the research.

“It is a great signal that a team from IE wins a competitive research award. It shows that IE produces research of quality and originality that brings value to society and interests both the industry and policymakers.”Pedro Gete, IE Business School Professor