Research
Published
1. Credit and Punishment: Are Corporate Bankers Disciplined for Risk-Taking? with Janet Gao and Joseph Pacelli
The Review of Financial Studies, Volume 33, Issue 12, December 2020, Pages 5706–5749
Conventional Wisdom: Wall-Street bankers face limited penalties for losing money
This Paper: Wall-Street bankers face strict labor incentives to minimize risk exposure
__________________________________________________
Journal of Financial Economics, Volume 139, Issue 2, February 2021, Pages 578-605
Conventional Wisdom: Lenders should provide more individual debt relief to consumers
This Paper: Providing individual debt relief encourages nearby consumers to default, representing a significant cost on lenders
__________________________________________________
The Review of Financial Studies, Volume 35, Issue 1, January 2022, Pages 207–253
Conventional Wisdom: Managers hired through networks are of lower quality
This Paper: Networks helps companies hire better managers by increasing access to scarce talent
__________________________________________________
The Journal of Finance, Volume 77, Issue 1, February 2022, Pages 49-83
2022 Journal of Finance Brattle Prize Distinguished Paper Award
Conventional Wisdom: Workers may start companies when faced with poor job opportunities, but this is mostly self-employment and temporary
This Paper: Unemployment shocks increase the number and proportion of highly-successful new firms by encouraging entrepreneurship among the top of the income distribution
____________________________________________________
Forthcoming at Review of Finance
Conventional Wisdom: Peer effects on entrepreneurship are small in the aggregate because entrepreneurs (and therefore interactions) are uncommon
This Paper: Intended entrepreneurs (far more common than actual entrepreneurs) also influence others to start a firm, leading to large peer effects in the aggregate
__________________________________________________
Under Revision
6. Are Judges Randomly Assigned to Chapter 11 Bankruptcies? Not According to Hedge Funds with Niklas Huether
Revise & Resubmit at Journal of Finance
Best Paper Award at the 2022 University of Texas AIM Conference
Conventional Wisdom: Judges are randomly-assigned to cases within a court district
This Paper: Relative to similar cases, cases with hedge funds acting as unsecured creditors are more likely to be assigned judges with a lower prior conversion rate and higher unsecured recovery rate. Hedge funds work with equity holders and managers to time the filing date to gain a preferable judge.
_______________________________________________
Working
7. Bank Entrepreneurs with Manju Puri and Chiwon Yom
[SLIDES]
Paper and Slides will become available following FDIC Approval
Conventional Wisdom: Entrepreneurs are innovators
This Paper: Bank entrepreneurs provide traditional bank services with little innovation. There is little difference between a former Wells Fargo employees starting a new bank and this same employee opening a new branch of Wells Fargo.
__________________________________________________