Austin L. MacDonald

I am an economist specializing in financial markets, macro-finance, and econometrics. My research lies at the intersection of asset pricing and behavioral finance, examining how asset managers are influenced by the portfolio allocations of their peers and competitors.

I hold a Ph.D. in Economics from The City University of New York, where I was a recipient of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (2021-2024).

Earlier in my career, I worked for the Treasury of Mexico in the Debt Management Office, focusing on public debt financing and sustainability. In my most recent paper, I use U.S. institutional holdings (SEC 13F data) to study the influence among investors and estimate spillovers on equity trades. I find that passive investors are more influential than expected, regardless of size.

To see my research and CV, please click on the top menu.

Measuring influence across institutional managers throughout time: Active investors are less influential than expected

The influence effect coefficient is the percentage change for a given stock held by the influenced investor (row) after observing a 1% change in the influencer investor's same stock (column), controlling for market and asset-specific information.

Every row or column represents an aggregate investor with varying degrees of active behavior and market cap. The effect distribution is color-coded, going from purple (less influential) to yellow (more influential). White cells in the main diagonal are omitted by construction. White cells in the upper and lower triangles are coefficients that are not statistically significant. The warmer color in the top right corner shows that passive investors are historically more influential than active ones, regardless of size.

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