Ishita Sen 

Assistant Professor of Finance

Harvard Business School 

Baker Library/Bloomberg Center 347

(617) 496-0872

isen@hbs.edu                

Research areas: Financial Intermediation; Regulation; Insurance Markets; Climate and Insurance; Asset Pricing

CV SSRN Google Scholar Harvard Faculty Page

Accepted & Published Papers


Regulatory Limits to Risk Management

Review of Financial Studies, Volume 36, Issue 6, June 2023, pp. 2175–2223. Lead Article and Editor’s Choice.

* Winner of the RFS Rising Scholar Award, 2024 | 2020 Q-Group Jack Treynor Prize | European Finance Association, Best Paper Prize, 2019 |  MFM Fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, University of Chicago, 2017 & 2018 | AQR Fellowship Award, Winner, 2018.

Publisher's version   Internet appendix 


Institutional Corporate Bond Pricing (with Lorenzo Bretscher, Lukas Schmid, and Varun Sharma). September 2024.

Accepted, Review of Financial Studies

* Inquire Europe Research Grant, 2021

* Select presentations: NBER New Developments in Long-Term Asset Management, AFA, Cavalcade, EFA


Pricing of Climate Risk Insurance: Regulation and Cross-Subsidies (with Sangmin Oh and Ana-Maria Tenekedijieva). February 2025.

Journal of Finance, Forthcoming

* Best Paper Prize in Responsible Finance, European Finance Association, 2022 | E-axes Forum Research Award in Macroeconomics and Sustainability, 2023 

* Select presentations: NBER Summer Institute (Corporate Finance), NBER Insurance, SITE (Climate Finance), SITE (Urban and Housing), AFA, Cavalcade, EFA

* Select coverage:  New York Times, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, CNN, CNBC, Daily Mail (UK), HBS Working Knowledge

* Policy: House Financial Services Committee Statement for the Record2024 Congressional Budget Office Climate Report, 2024 FSOC Financial Stability Report 


Working Papers


When Insurers Exit: Climate Losses, Fragile Insurers, and Mortgage Markets (with Pari Sastry and Ana-Maria Tenekedijieva). December 2024.

Revise & Resubmit, Quarterly Journal of Economics 

* Select presentations: NBER Summer Institute (Corporate Finance) 2024, NBER Innovative Data in Household Finance 2023, NBER Insurance 2024, SITE Financial Regulation 2024, Cavalcade 2024; WFA 2024; Freddie Mac Climate Risk Seminar; EFA 2024, AFA 2025

* Select coverage:  Matt Levine Money Matters, New York Times (1), New York Times (2), Bloomberg, Politico E&E, Washington Post, The New Yorker 

* Policy: Senate Budget Committee Testimony, Senator Whitehouse's Climate Risk Speech at the US Senate, Citation in Congressional Letter to the NAIC, 2024 Congressional Budget Office Climate Report, 2024 FSOC Financial Stability Report, Congressional Letter to Fannie Mae, Treasury Federal Insurance Office 2025 Report on Climate and Insurance  


Climate Risk and the U.S. Insurance Gap: Measurement, Drivers and Implications (with Pari Sastry, Tess Scharlemann, and Ana-Maria Tenekedijieva). February 2025

* Select presentations: RFS-Oklahoma Climate Finance Conference, Columbia SIPA - NY Fed Environmental Economics Conference, Duke-UNC Corporate Finance Conference, WFA 2025, SFS Cavalcade 2025, NBER Insurance Working Group 2025, NYU Stern Climate Finance Conference 2025 


The Market for Sharing Interest Rate Risk: Quantities and Asset Prices (with Umang Khetan, Jane Li, and Ioana Neamtu). March 2024.

* Best Paper Prize in Asset Management, Midwest Finance Association 2025 |  Inquire Europe Research Grant, 2024

* Select presentations: AFA 2025, SFS Cavalcade 2024, OFR Rising Scholar Conference 2024, European Summer Symposium in Financial Markets, EFA 2024, NBER Financial Market Frictions and Systemic Risks, NBER New Developments in Long-Term Asset Management 

 * Coverage: Bank of England (Underground)


Internal Models, Make Believe Prices, and Bond Market Cornering (with Varun Sharma). June 2020.

* Selected presentations: WFA 2021, FIRS 2021, EFA 2021, NBER Insurance Meeting 2020, WFA-CFAR Conference (Washington University in St. Louis) 2020


Research In Progress


The Evolution of Insurance Markets: Insurance Provision and Capital Regulation (with Alex Barbu and David Humphry). December 2024.

* Selected presentations: AFA, Becker Friedman Institute Macro Finance Summer Session, CEPR Workshop in Household Finance 

* Parts of this paper build on an older working paper titled Capital Regulation and Product Market Outcomes


Hedging with Product Design (with Alex Barbu). June 2024.

* Selected presentations: CEPR European Summer Symposium in Financial Markets