Moritz Lenel, Stanford University

Moritz Lenel’s research interests are in macroeconomics and finance. He is expected to receive a PhD in Economics from Stanford University in June. He will then spend a year as a research fellow at the Becker Friedman Institute at the University of Chicago. In the summer of 2018, he will join the Bendheim Center for Finance at Princeton University.

His recent work studies how quantities of safe bonds affect interest rates and asset prices, a question that is relevant for understanding the transmission of unconventional monetary policy. In other projects, he analyzes the effects of housing policies on the homeownership rate and the interaction of corporate bank and bond financing. Lenel holds a degree in economics from Universität Konstanz and a master’s degree in international trade, finance, and development from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. In 2014, Lenel was awarded the Ric Weiland Graduate Fellowship in Stanford's School of Humanities & Sciences and a research fellowship from the Becker Friedman Institute's Macro Financial Modeling project. He received the 2016/17 Kohlhagen Fellowship endowed by Steve and Gale Kohlhagen through a grant to the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. This May, he was a speaker on the Review of Economic Studies Tour.

Safe Assets, Collateralized Lending and Monetary Policy

Emily Williams, London Business School

Emily Williams is a PhD candidate in finance at London Business School. Her research focuses on financial intermediation, empirical corporate finance and monetary policy. Her primary interest is in understanding bank funding structure, financing frictions and the impact of bank financing frictions on the real economy. Emily studied for a Masters of Mathematics at Warwick University, and subsequently worked in the finance industry in various roles before completing her MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. After completion of her PhD requirements at London Business School this summer, Emily will join Harvard Business School as an Assistant Professor in the Finance unit.

Monetary Policy Transmission and the Funding Structure of Banks

Alexander K. Zentefis, University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Alexander K. Zentefis is a PhD candidate in finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. His research interests are in macro-finance, financial intermediation, asset pricing, and industrial organization. Before attending graduate school, he was a senior research assistant at the Federal Reserve Board. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in finance from Washington University in St. Louis. This summer, Alexander will join Yale School of Management.

Bank Net Worth and Frustrated Monetary Policy

Simona Abis, INSEAD

Simona Abis is a PhD candidate in Finance at INSEAD soon to join Columbia Business School as Assistant Professor. Before joining the PhD program, Simona worked as a quantitative researcher for a systematic hedge fund. Simona holds a M.Sc. in Quantitative Finance from Cass Business School and a B.Sc. in Economics from Bocconi University. Her research interest spans the fields of information economics, empirical and theoretical asset pricing, financial econometrics, microeconomics, Bayesian learning, machine learning, mutual funds, hedge funds and Fintech. Overall Simona is interested in the impact of technology on financial markets. Her current research focuses particularly on the impact of technological change on investment management through the rise of quantitative investment.

Man vs. Machine: Quantitative and Discretionary Equity Management

Pascal Noel, Harvard University

Pascal is a PhD Candidate in Economics at Harvard University. His main research interests are in household finance, real estate, macroeconomics, and public finance.  Pascal received a Bachelor’s degree in Ethics, Politics, and Economics from Yale University and a Master's degree in Economics from the London School of Economics. Prior to his PhD, he worked as a policy advisor for housing markets and financial regulation at the White House National Economic Council. Next year, Pascal will be joining the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business.

The Effect of Debt on Default and Consumption: Evidence from Housing Policy in the Great Recession

Jessica Jeffers, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Jessica is a PhD candidate in Finance at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. Her primary area of research is empirical corporate finance, and her interests include human capital, investment decisions, entrepreneurship, and social enterprise. She is a 2017 Kauffman Dissertation Fellow and a winner of LinkedIn's 2015 Economic Graph Challenge. 

Jessica holds a B.A. in Economics & Mathematics from Yale University. Prior to studying at Wharton, she worked in management consulting for the financial industry. She is joining the finance faculty at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business.

The Impact of Restricting Labor Mobility on Corporate Investment and Entrepreneurship

Asaf Bernstein, MIT Sloan School of Management
Asaf is a PhD candidate in Financial Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Sloan School of Management. His primary area of research is empirical corporate finance, but his interests generally lie at the intersection of policy and finance and include economic history, asset pricing, and household finance. His research has looked at the effect of financial regulations and institutions, including the Federal Reserve, rating agencies, centralized clearing, and mortgage assistance programs. His research has been published in the Journal of Financial Economics and selected for inclusion in the SFS Finance Cavalcade and Western Finance Association annual meetings in 2016. Prior to graduate school, he received his B.S. in Economics and Mathematics at Harvey Mudd College and worked as a quantitative trader at an investment bank in New York. Next year, Asaf will be joining the finance faculty of the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

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Job market paper: Household Debt Overhang and Labor Supply

Arpit Gupta, Columbia Business School
Arpit Gupta is a PhD Candidate in Finance and Economics at Columbia Business School. His research focuses on household finance, real estate, and corporate finance. Arpit earned degrees in Mathematics and Economics as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago. Next fall, Arpit will join the Finance Department at the NYU Stern School of Business.

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Job market paper: Foreclosure Contagion and the Neighborhood Spillover Effects of Mortgage Defaults

Elisabeth Kempf, Tilburg University
Elisabeth is a PhD Candidate in Finance at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. Her main research interests are in empirical corporate finance, financial intermediation, and labor in finance. Elisabeth received a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Mannheim, Germany, and a Master’s degree in Finance from HEC Paris. Prior to her PhD, she spent one year at Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, Germany, as an Analyst in the Group Strategy & Planning division. Next year, Elisabeth will be joining the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business.

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Job market paper: The Job Rating Game: The Effects of Revolving Doors on Analyst Incentives

Song Ma, Yale School of Management
Song is a Ph.D. candidate in Finance at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. His main research interests include corporate finance, entrepreneurial finance, and the economics of innovation. In recent work, he has studied how corporate financial decisions and capital markets affect entrepreneurship and innovation. Prior to attending Duke, Song earned his BA in Economics with highest honor from Zhejiang University, China. He is joining the Yale School of Management as an Assistant Professor of Finance in July 2016.

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Job Market Paper: The Life Cycle of Corporate Venture Capital

David Schoenherr, London Business School
David Schoenherr  is a PhD Candidate in Finance at London Business School. Originally, he is from Frankfurt, Germany, where he obtained a Diploma in Business Adminstration with a focus on Finance at Goethe University, Frankfurt. David’s research interests are in areas of Financial Contracting, in particular bankruptcy law, and the effects of social and political connections on economic outcomes. David will join the Economics department at Princeton University this summer.

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Job market paper: Political Connections and Allocative Distortions

Michael Schwert, Stanford Graduate School of Business
Michael Schwert is a PhD candidate in Finance at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. His research interests include credit markets, financial intermediation, and corporate finance. He is originally from Rochester, New York and earned undergraduate degrees in Mathematics and Economics from Duke University. Michael will be an Assistant Professor of Finance at the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University starting this summer.

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Job market paper: Bank Capital and Lending Relationships

Svetlana Bryzgalova, PhD from London School of Economics

Svetlana is a PhD Candidate in Economics at London School of Economics. Originally she is from Nizhny Novgorod, Russia and before coming to London, she studied at Higher School of Economics, Russia, where she obtained BA in Economics (Mathematics) and MSc in Financial Economics. Svetlana is interested in macro finance, empirical asset pricing and the issues involved in the estimation of these models. She is joining the finance group at Stanford Graduate School of Business in September 2015.

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Job market paper: Spurious Factors in Linear Asset Pricing Models

Benjamin Hébert, PhD from Harvard University, Department of Economics and Harvard Business School

Ben is a PhD candidate in the Business Economics program at Harvard.  His main research interests are in macroeconomics and finance. Prior to graduate school, he worked as a proprietary trader at an investment bank in New York.  He earned degrees in Physics and Computer Science as an undergraduate at M.I.T. Next year, Ben will join the finance group at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

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Job market paper: MORAL HAZARD AND THE OPTIMALITY OF DEBT

Sabrina Howell, PhD from Harvard University

Sabrina Howell recently graduated from Harvard University with a PhD in the Economics track of the Political Economy and Government program. Sabrina is joining the NYU Stern School of Business Finance Department in July 2015. She studies entrepreneurial finance, energy finance, and innovation. Sabrina earned her BA from Yale in 2008, where she majored in both Economics and East Asian Studies. Subsequently, she worked for Charles River Associates in Houston, Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE) in Washington DC, and as an intern at the White House National Economic Council. Sabrina has a special interest in China, and speaks Mandarin. She is originally from New York City, where she attended Stuyvesant High School.

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Job market paper: Financing Constraints as Barriers to Innovation: Evidence from R&D Grants to Energy Startups

Lawrence Jin, PhD from Yale School of Management

Lawrence J. Jin will receive his Ph.D. in Financial Economics from Yale University in May 2015. His research focuses on asset pricing, behavioral finance, financial intermediaries, and household finance. He holds a B.S. in Mathematics and Physics from Tsinghua University and a M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Caltech. Prior to attending Yale, he spent two years as a research and trading analyst at Citigroup. His research has been published in the Review of Financial Studies and the Journal of Financial Economics. His JFE paper "X-CAPM: An Extrapolative Asset Pricing Model" received the Q-Group's 2014 Jack Treynor Prize. Next year, Lawrence Jin will be joining the California Institute of Technology as an Assistant Professor of Finance.

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Job market paper: A Speculative Asset Pricing Model of Financial Instability

Lawrence Schmidt, PhD from University of California, San Diego

Lawrence is a PhD Candidate in Economics at the University of California, San Diego. Next year, he will be joining the faculty as an Assistant Professor in the Economics Department at the University of Chicago. His research is at the intersection of finance and macroeconomics, with a particular emphasis on asset pricing. He uses a unique combination of theory and applied econometrics to offer a richer picture of risks faced by financial market participants--households, institutional investors, and financial intermediaries--and shed new light on underlying economic mechanisms linking financial markets with the real economy. A common thread in his research agenda is the study of conditional distributions and higher moments, with an emphasis on the evolution of cross-sectional distributions over time in response to macroeconomic events. While the majority of empirical research emphasizes conditional means and variances, other aspects of the distribution often reveal interesting asymmetries and nonlinearities which yield new insights about the propagation of aggregate shocks. Examples from his research consider the interaction between asset returns and idiosyncratic tail risk in the labor market, as well as the strategic behavior of investors during the money market panic of 2008.

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Job market paper: Climbing and Falling Off the Ladder: Asset Pricing Implications of Labor Market Event Risk

Emil N. Siriwardane, PhD from NYU Stern School of Business

Emil Siriwardane is a PhD Candidate in Finance at the NYU Stern School of Business.  In recent work, he has studied how the risk bearing capacity of large financial institutions impacts the pricing of credit risk in credit default swap markets.  His other research interests include macro-finance, the pricing of tail risks, and volatility econometrics.  Emil was a finalist for the 2013 Best Finance PhD Award in Honor of Professor Stuart I. Greenbaum, and his paper “Structural GARCH: The Volatility-Leverage Connection” was nominated for the 2014 AQR Insight Award.  Prior to his graduate studies, he received a Bachelor of Science in Operations Research and Financial Engineering degree from Princeton University.  Next year, Emil will be joining the finance department at Harvard Business School.

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Job market paper: Concentrated Capital Losses and the Pricing of Corporate Credit Risk

Boris Vallée, PhD from HEC Paris

Boris Vallée is a PhD Candidate from HEC Paris. His research agenda focuses on the motives and effects of innovative financial products. His interests cover household finance, empirical corporate finance and financial institutions. He visited Duke University and Northwestern University as part of his PhD. His research has been selected for the Western Finance Association annual meetings in 2012 and 2014, and he was a finalist for the Best Finance PhD Award in Honor of Professor Stuart I. Greenbaum (10th Annual Corporate Finance Conference). Prior to his PhD, Boris worked at Deutsche Bank in London, in Leveraged Finance and Structured Derivatives, and received a MSc in Finance from HEC Paris. Next year, Boris Vallée will be joining Harvard Business School.

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Job market paper: What Drives Financial Complexity? A Look into the Retail Market for Structured Products

Maryam Farboodi, PhD from Booth School of Business and Department of Economics, University of Chicago

Maryam Farboodi is a PhD Candidate in Financial Economics at the University of Chicago. Her main research interests are theoretical banking, financial macroeconomics and mechanism design. Her job market paper "Intermediation and Voluntary Exposure to Counterparty risk" focuses on network formation among financial institutions and the implications for the overall topology of the financial system as well as systemic risk.  She has also done some work in mechanism design for online auctions, "Optimal Revenue Maximizing Mechanisms in Common-Value Position Auctions",  corporate finance, "Financing and Control Rights: Entrepreneurial Choice of Funding Source", and macroeconomics with financial frictions, "Supply Side Frictions and Lengthy Recoveries". Before coming to Chicago, Maryam received her B.S. in Computer Engineering from Sharif University of Technology, and her M.S. in Computer Science from University of Maryland. She is originally from Tehran, Iran.

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Job Market Paper: Intermediation and Voluntary Exposure to Counterparty Risk

Eduardo Dávila, PhD from Harvard University
Eduardo Dávila is a PhD candidate in Economics at Harvard University. He has recently studied the optimal determination of transaction taxes, the optimal design of bankruptcy policies and the effects of bank size on financial fragility. He is from Spain, where he received a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Pompeu Fabra University. Next year, Eduardo Dávila will be joining New York University Stern School of Business.

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Job market paper: Optimal Financial Transaction Taxes

Victoria Vanasco, PhD from University of California, Berkeley

Victoria Vanasco will receive her PhD in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, in May 2014. Her research is at the intersection of corporate finance and macroeconomics, with a focus on the role of informational asymmetries and belief heterogeneity in financial markets and the real economy.  She is from Argentina, where she did her undergraduate studies in Economics and a Masters in Finance at the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella. Prior to attending Berkeley, she spent two years as a Junior Professional Associate at the World Bank, where she was part of the Finance Group for Latin America. Next year, Victoria Vanasco will be joining the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

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Job market paper: Information Acquisition vs. Liquidity in Financial Markets

François Geerolf, PhD from Sciences Po Paris

François Geerolf conducts research on financial bubbles and their effects on the business cycle, the savings glut and capital accumulation, and the determinants of capital inflows and competitiveness. He holds an Engineering Degree from Ecole Polytechnique, as well as from Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées, a MSc. from Paris School of Economics, and a Ph.D. in Economics from Sciences Po Paris. He spent a year at Harvard University during his doctoral studies, and a semester at MIT as a Visiting Scholar. Next year, François Geerolf will be joining the Department of Economics at UCLA as an Assistant Professor.

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Job market paper: A Theory of Power Law Distributions for the Returns to Capital and of the Credit Spread Puzzle

Michael Weber, PhD from Haas School of Business – University of California, Berkeley

Michael Weber's research lies at the intersection of Macroeconomics and Finance. In recent work he has studied the effects of nominal rigidities on stock returns, the costs of sticky prices, the term structure of equity returns, and the effect of distrust in financial institutions on stock market participation. His paper ''Conditional Risk Premia in Currency Markets and other Asset Classes'' has been awarded the 2013 AQR Insight Award. Prior to attending grad school at Berkeley, Michael received his Bachelor's and Master's degree in Business Economics from the University of Mannheim, Germany. Next year, Michael Weber will be joining the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

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Job market paper: Nominal Rigidities and Asset Pricing

Jean-Noël Barrot, PhD from HEC Paris School of Management
Jean-Noël Barrot conducts research in corporate finance, with a particular focus on entrepreneurial finance. In recent work, he has studied the effect of venture capital fund managers horizon on their investment decisions,  the effect of trade credit on competition and entrepreneurship, and the behavior of individual investors during the recent financial crisis. His work has been awarded the Coller Prize in Private Equity Research 2012. Barrot holds an M.A. in quantitative economics and finance from Ecole Polytechnique, an M.Phil. in economics from Paris School of Economics and a Ph.D. in financial economics from HEC Paris School of Management. Next year, Jean-Noël Barrot will be joining MIT Sloan School of Management.

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Job market paper: Financial Strength and Trade Credit Provision: Evidence from Trucking Firms

Gabriel Chodorow-Reich, PhD from University of California, Berkeley
Gabriel Chodorow-Reich will receive his Ph.D in economics from the University of California, Berkeley in May 2013.  His research focuses on corporate finance and macroeconomics.  His paper "Does State Fiscal Relief During Recessions Increase Employment? Evidence from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act" recently received the AEJ: Economic Policy Best Paper Prize for 2012.  Gabriel has worked as an economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers, and prior to graduate study as a research assistant at the Brookings Institution.  He received his A.B. from Harvard in 2005. Next year, Gabriel Chodorow-Reich will be joining Harvard University.

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Job Market Paper: The Employment Effects of Credit Market Disruptions: Firm-level Evidence from the 2008-09 Financial Crisis

Timothy J. McQuade, PhD from Harvard University
Timothy McQuade is a PhD candidate at Harvard University.  He conducts research in the areas of asset pricing and housing economics.  In recognition of his graduate work, he has been invited to participate in The Review of Economic Studies 2013 May Meetings.  Prior to attending Harvard, Timothy worked at UBS Investment Bank and received a bachelor's degree in mathematics and economics from the University of Michigan. Next year, Timothy McQuade will be joining Stanford Graduate School of Business.

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Job Market Paper: Stochastic Volatility and Asset Pricing Puzzles

Marina Niessner, PhD from University of Chicago
Marina Niessner studies topics in empirical corporate finance and behavioral finance. She earned a bachelor's degree in Economics and Statistics from the University of Chicago. She worked at the Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory for two years before earning a PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago. Next year, Marina Niessner will be joining Yale School of Management.

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Job Market Paper: Strategic Disclosure Timing and Insider Trading

Felipe Varas, PhD from Stanford Graduate School of Business
Felipe Varas is finishing his PhD in finance at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. His areas of research are corporate finance, dynamic contracts and dynamic games. He is from Chile and, before doing his PhD, Felipe did his undergraduate and Master's degree in economics at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile. Next year, Felipe Varas will be joining Duke Fuqua School of Business.

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Job Market Paper: Contracting Timely Delivery with Hard to Verify Quality