Paola Brighi is a full professor of Economics of Financial Intermediation at the University of Milan, Italy. She earned her MA from the Université Catholique de Louvain (Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium) and a PhD from the Università Politecnica delle Marche (Italy). She has been a visiting scholar at the University of Wisconsin (USA) and the University of Essex (UK). Her research interests include ESG topics, banking structures, relationship lending, geographic diversification of banks, efficiency, cooperative banks, and SME finance.

Maurizio Mussoni is an assistant professor of Economics and Economics of Financial Intermediation at the University of Bologna, Italy. He holds an MSc in Economics from the University of Leuven (Belgium) and a PhD in Law and Economics from the University of Bologna (Italy). He is a fellow and Scientific Secretary of the Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis. His research primarily focuses on the economics of financial services, ethical finance, civil economy, regional economic analysis, tourism economics, social capital and economic development, and the intersection of economics and religion.