Tomas Nobrega

Tomas Nobrega

Finance Ph.D. Candidate

About me

Hi! I am Tomas, a Finance Ph.D. student at Insper, currently visiting MIT’s Finance Department. I expect to graduate in December 2025. My research focuses on:

  • What drives assets returns, especially
    • In emerging markets
    • In corporate bonds
  • How does financial development influence the real economy

Before starting my Ph.D., I launched one of Brazil’s largest high-school scholarship program for low-income students, now benefiting over 750 students in 120 cities. I also worked in mergers and acquisitions, where I valued multiple business and led the integration of a newly acquired business in Rondonópolis, an agricultural hub in Brazil. Additionally, I supported a high-growth startup, overseeing its back-office structure during rapid expansion and funding rounds. Just before my Ph.D., I fulfilled a personal dream by running my own bakery.

I am also Audit Committee Member for Base Dos Dados, Brazil’s data lake of public information.

Current projects

Firm Characteristics and Stock Returns in Brazil

With Ruy Ribeiro, Josue Costa, Mohammed Kaebi and Igor Martins.
Abstract: We investigate the impact of firm characteristics on stock returns in the Brazilian financial market, considering a long list of characteristics found be relevant in the U.S. market. Employing Fama-MacBeth regressions, alongside machine learning techniques, we examine over 24 firm-level characteristics. Our findings highlight the stronger influence of price-related metrics, such as momentum, liquidity, size and volatility, over accounting variables. We also explore the robustness of these characteristics through the construction of various portfolios, revealing significant alphas in multiple portfolio construction methods and substantial out-of-sample performance.

Betting on Betas but against Duration

With Lira Mota and Luca Mertens
(Coming soon!)

Development of Finance: Human Capital Perspective

With Jiageng Liu
Idea: In this project we are interested in the relationship between the development of the financial sector in Brazil and the development of the real economy. Particularly, we are looking at the employment dataset of RAIS and issuance information.

Education

Insper

Ph.D. in Finance (Expected December 2025).
Advisor: Ruy Ribeiro.
São Paulo, Brazil.
Visiting student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2024.

University of Sao Paulo (USP)

B.A. in Economics (Completed in 2016).
São Paulo, Brazil.
Visiting student at University of Groningen, Netherlands, in 2015.

Skills

  • Expertise: Asset Pricing, Programming, Statistical Modeling and Implementing, Machine Learning, Big-Data (with a focus on financial datasets), Valuation.
  • Software: Advanced: R, Python, Git, Excel, SQL. Intermediate: MATLAB.
  • Languages: Portuguese (Native), Spanish (Fluent), English (Fluent).

Teaching

I enjoy teaching and sharing knowledge.

Teaching assistant

  • Asset Pricing - PhD Level - Instructor: Marco Bonomo - 2023
  • Investments - Master of Economics - Instructor: Ruy Ribeiro - 2022-2023
  • Microeconomics 1 - Undergraduate - Instructors: Luciana Yeung and Thomas Conti - 2021-2023

I have also volunteered teaching high-school Math and Python in social programs, aiming to inspire and empower underprivileged students.