Matthew T. Gustafson

I am the Robert and Judith Klein Professor of Finance at Pennsylvania State University. My research uses policy experiments and natural variation to study two main areas: corporate finance, often in the context of capital raising or financial intermediation, and the economic effects of climate and weather risks and environmental policies, often through their consequences on real estate or municipal finance outcomes. I have been on Penn State's finance faculty since completing my PhD at the University of Rochester in 2013. Below you will find brief descriptions of my published work and current working papers.

Links: CV, | Google Scholar | Smeal Profile

Published Papers

23. Small Business Judging Judges , 2026 (with Mehmet Canayaz). Accepted at Management Science.

Liberal courts lead to less growth in local firm counts, driven by elevated young firm exits.

22. A Flash in the Pan(demic)? Migration risks and Municipal Bonds, 2025 (with Peter Haslag, Daniel Wegley, and Zihan Ye). Accepted at Management Science.

Areas that exhibit in (out) migration during the COVID-19 pandemic exhibit similar trends prior to COVID, but lower (higher) yield spreads afterwards.

21. Voter Induced Municipal Credit Risk, 2025 (with Brent Ambrose, Maxence Valentin, and Zihan Ye). Management Science

When preferences for public good provision change investors perceive municipal credit risk to the extent that voters have more say in the municipal financing process.

20. IPOs and the Local Economy: Evidence of Crowding Out, 2024 (with Jess Cornaggia, Jason Kotter, and Kevin Pisciotta). Review of Finance.

A firm’s transition from private to public ownership stunts local economic growth because it crowds out competition.

19. Sea Level Rise and Municipal Bond Yields, 2023 (with Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, Ryan Lewis, and Michael Schwert). Review of Financial Studies.

Increased sea level rise projections over the past decade have led to a statistically significant increase in municipal bond yields for exposed areas. The effect is driven primarily by uncertainty of future sea level rise.

18. When Bankers go to Hail: Insights into Fed-bank Interactions from Taxi Data, 2023 (with Dan Bradley, David Finer, and Jared Williams). Management Science.

We introduce taxi cab ridership between the New York Fed and the systemic institutions it supervises as a novel proxy for Fed activity. We find that Fed-bank ridership is negatively related to aggregate market returns over the following two weeks.

17. Higher Minimum Wage Reduces Capital Expenditures, 2023 (with Jason Kotter). Management Science.

Minimum wage increases result in industries relying on minimum wage labor reducing their capital expenditures.

16. Partisan Residential Sorting on Sea Level Rise Risk, 2022 (with Asaf Bernstein, Stephen Billings, and Ryan Lewis). The Journal of Financial Economics.

Republicans are more likely to purchase sea level rise exposed properties than Democrats, and this effect appears related to differences in beliefs regarding long-run sea level rise risks.

15. Weathering Cash Flow Shocks, 2021 (with Ivan Ivanov and James Brown). Journal of Finance.

Unexpectedly severe winter weather, which is plausibly exogenous to firm and bank fundamentals, represents a significant cash flow shock for bank-borrowing firms. Borrowers respond to these shocks by drawing on and increasing the size of their credit lines. Banks charge borrowers for this liquidity via increased interest rates and less borrower-friendly loan provisions.

14. Bank Monitoring: Evidence from Syndicated Loans, 2021 (with Ivan Ivanov and Ralf Meisenzahl). The Journal of Financial Economics.

Lenders conduct active monitoring, such as borrower meetings or site visits, on 20% of loans and demand information at least on a monthly basis for 50% of loans. Both monitoring measures are positively related to the lead arranger's loan share and negatively related to loan maturity, borrower public status, and covenant use.

13. Do the Burdens to being Public Affect the Investment and Innovation of Newly Public Firms, 2021 (with Michael Dambra). Management Science.

Firms treated with reduced regulatory burdens invest more and more efficiently after going public.

12. Firing Frictions and the U.S. Mergers and Acquisitions Market, 2021 (with Robert Chatt and Adam Welker). The Journal of Banking and Finance.

Following the adoption of state laws that increase firing costs, there is an immediate and persistent 30% reduction in both total mergers and acquisitions (M&A) dollar volume and average M&A size as well as an immediate increase in withdrawn deals.

11. What is the effect of an Additional Dollar of IPO Proceeds?, 2021 (with Michael Dambra and Kevin Pisciotta). The Journal of Corporate Finance

Marginal increases in IPO proceeds lead to more analyst coverage, institutional shareholders, and stock liquidity throughout the first two years a firm is public.

10. Tax-advantaged Trust Use among IPO Executives: Determinants and Implications for Valuation and Future Performance, 2020 (with Michael Dambra and Phillip Quinn). The Accounting Review, 95(3), 145-175.

Twenty-three percent of CEOs use tax-advantaged pre-IPO trusts, and trust use predicts more favorable post-IPO returns.

9. Disaster on the Horizon: The Price Effect of Sea Level Rise, 2019 (with Asaf Bernstein and Ryan Lewis). Journal of Financial Economics.

2019 AQR Insight Award, Distinguished Paper

2018 International Center for Pension Management Research Award

2018 Northern Finance Association Best Paper in Risk Management

Homes exposed to sea level rise (SLR) sell for approximately 7% less than observably equivalent unexposed properties equidistant from the beach. This discount has grown over time and is driven by sophisticated buyers and communities worried about global warming. Consistent with identification of long horizon SLR costs, we find no relation between SLR exposure and rental rates and a 4% discount among properties not projected to be flooded for almost a century.

8. Index Membership and Small Firm Financing, 2019 (with Charles Cao and Raisa Velthuis). Management Science.

Index membership causes small firms to transition away from bank financing in favor of equity offerings.

7. The Consequences to Analyst Involvement in the IPO Process: Evidence Surrounding the JOBS Act, 2018 (with Michael Dambra, Laura Field, and Kevin Pisciotta). Journal of Accounting and Economics.

Analysts that are allowed to be more involved in the IPO process initiate coverage that is more optimistically biased and less accurate.

6. Price Pressure and Overnight Seasoned Equity Offerings, 2018. Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis.

Most SEOs are now announced and issued overnight. Overnight issuers obtain a higher offer price because they experience more favorable pre-offer returns.

5. Inter-Market Competition and Bank Loan Spreads: Evidence from The Securities Offering Reform, 2018. Journal of Banking and Finance.

Access to public securities mitigates the bank hold-up problem and reduces loan spreads by increasing a borrower’s bargaining power vis-à-vis a lender.

4. The Effects of Removing Barriers to Equity Issuance, 2017 (with Peter Iliev). Journal of Financial Economics.

Deregulation allowing firms to accelerate public equity issuance is followed by a doubling of reliance on public equity and a transition away from private investments in public equity. This is accompanied by a reduction in equity issuance costs, an increase in investment, and a decrease in leverage.

3. The Market Sensitivity of Retirement and Defined Contribution Pensions: Evidence from the Public Sector, 2017. Journal of Public Economics.

Defined contribution pensions make retirement more positively correlated with stock market returns as compared to defined benefits pensions.

2. Financial Condition and Product Market Cooperation, 2015 (with Ivan Ivanov and John Ritter). Journal of Corporate Finance.

Poor financial condition is positively associated with product market cooperation.

The JOBS Act and IPO Volume: Evidence that Disclosure Costs Affect the IPO Decision, 2015 (with Michael Dambra and Laura Casares Field). Journal of Financial Economics.

In April 2012, the JOBS Act was passed to help revitalize the IPO market, especially for small firms. During the year ending March 2014, IPO volume and proportion of small firm issuers was the largest since 2000. Controlling for market conditions, we estimate that the JOBS Act has led to 21 additional IPOs annually, a 25% increase over pre-JOBS levels. Firms with high proprietary disclosure costs, such as biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms, increase IPO activity most. These firms are also more likely to take advantage of the Act’s de-risking provisions, allowing firms to file the IPO confidentially while testing-the-waters.

Current Working Papers

Can Municipalities Weather the Weather? 2026 (with Michael Dambra). Revising for Resubmisson to the Review of Financial Studies

Hot temperatures reduce municipal revenues. Municipalities manage these revenue shocks via immediate reductions in spending, especially overhead capital spending.

Conference Presentations: 2026 American Finance Association

Propagation of climate disasters through ownership networks, 2025 (with Ai He, Ugur Lel, and Zhongling Qin). Revising for Resubmisson to Management Science

Investors' exposure to climate disasters in their portfolio affects their voting behavior in non-disaster hit firms. This effect is larger for votes at brown firms, elevated when attention to climate change is high, and aggregate exposure to these investor shocks affects firms' environmental policy.

Conference Presentations: 2023 Financial Intermediation Research Society and 2024 American Finance Association Meetings

Borders Bear the Brunt: State Environmental Review and Severed Agglomerations , 2026 (with Lubomir Litov and Bharat Raj Parajuli).

State environmental policy hampers small business establishment growth, but the effect concentrates at legislative borders in a manner consistent with severed agglomerations.

Conference Presentations: 2026 SFS Cavalcade

Does Wildfire Smoke Choke Local Businesses to adapt , 2026 (with Jawad Addoum, Dimitrios Gounopoulos, Ryan Lewis, and Tam Nguyen).

Elevated wildfire smoke leads to less sales and more establishment exits in consumer facing sectors. The long-run adjustments are concentrated in areas that believe more in climate change.

Conference Presentations: 2024 Western Finance Association Meetings

When Locking in Biodiversity Locks Up Land , 2026 (with Golnaz Bahrami and Eva Steiner).

Biodiversity protections reduce land value by approximately 45% due to reduced development opportunities.

Conference Presentations: 2025 European Finance Association and 2026 American Finance Association

Subsidizing Less by Coordinating More: When Brown Firms Coordinate on Green Investment, 2025 (with Zhe Wang).

Big oil firms have assets exposed to the path of climate change mitigation and thus will internalize certain externalities of climate change, especially when organized into a more concentrated investment vehicle. This has implications for the effect of other policies, such as carbon tax rates, on total investment in green technology.

Conference Presentations: 2026 Finance Theory Group

Burdening the Young: Life Cycle Effects of Mandatory Disclosure on Investment, 2026 (with Jewon Shin).

Mandatory disclosure burdens only affect firms' investment policy when firms are very young and the effect is concentrated in R&D investment.

Conference Presentations: 2025 Northern Finance Association, 2026 CICF

Environmental Certainty and Homeowner Investment: Evidence from Conservation Easements , 2026 (with Golnaz Bahrami and Eva Steiner).

Homeowners investment more in their property when nearby vacant land is permanently conserved via a biodiversity conservation easement.

Conference Presentations: 2026 American Economic Association

Discerning Value from M&A Transcripts , 2026 (with Charles Cao, Jewon Shin, and Kenneth Wang).

Use LLM processing to identify new sources of value from M&A transcripts and link these value sources to acquirer returns and future operating performence.

Conference Presentations: 2026 MARC

Weathering the Blow of a Disrupted Roadshow , 2025 (with Joseph Henry, Emily Kim, and Kevin Pisciotta).

Using weather-induced variation in roadshow prospectus distribution we find that more IPO marketing breadth predicts better IPO pricing and offers other long-run benefits to issuers.

Going Public, Going Places: IPOs and Geographic Expansion, 2025 (with Jess Cornaggia, Jason Kotter, and Kevin Pisciotta).

Firms rapidly geographically expand after they go public.

Re(Purchasing) Activist Clientele , 2025 (with Don Autore, Nicholas Clarke, and Andrew Schrowang).

Firms that make large open-market share repurchases are more frequent targets of activist investors

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