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Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(335)
- People (1)
- News (59)
- Research (195)
- Multimedia (6)
- Faculty Publications (136)
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- October 2008
- Article
The Small World of Investing: Board Connections and Mutual Fund Returns
By: Lauren Cohen, Andrea Frazzini and Christopher J. Malloy
This paper uses social networks to identify information transfer in security markets. We focus on connections between mutual fund managers and corporate board members via shared education networks. We find that portfolio managers place larger bets on firms they are... View Details
Keywords: Financial Markets; Information Management; Social and Collaborative Networks; Announcements; Investment Portfolio; Investment Return; Investment Funds; Asset Pricing; Governing and Advisory Boards
Cohen, Lauren, Andrea Frazzini, and Christopher J. Malloy. "The Small World of Investing: Board Connections and Mutual Fund Returns." Journal of Political Economy 116, no. 5 (October 2008): 951–979. (Winner of the Barclays Global Investors Award, Best Paper in Asset Pricing, European Finance Association 2007.)
- Forthcoming
- Article
Calling All Issuers: The Market for Debt Monitoring
By: Huaizhi Chen, Lauren Cohen and Weiling Liu
95% of long-term municipal bonds have callable features, and yet we find new evidence of a substantial fraction of local governments exercising these valuable options sub-optimally, with significant delays – resulting in sizable losses. Using data from 2001 to 2019, we... View Details
Keywords: Bonds; Financial Institutions; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Government Administration; Financing and Loans
Chen, Huaizhi, Lauren Cohen, and Weiling Liu. "Calling All Issuers: The Market for Debt Monitoring." Management Science (forthcoming). (Pre-published online November 1, 2024.)
- Forthcoming
- Article
The Political Economy of Anti-Bribery Enforcement
By: Lauren Cohen and Bo Li
Using exogenous variation in the timing and geographic location of U.S. Congressional elections, we find that the probability of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) enforcement actions against foreign firms increases significantly preceding senatorial elections,... View Details
Keywords: Bribery; Regulatory Enforcement; Crime and Corruption; Political Elections; Power and Influence; Public Opinion; Geographic Location
Cohen, Lauren, and Bo Li. "The Political Economy of Anti-Bribery Enforcement." Management Science (forthcoming).
- May 2019 (Revised May 2020)
- Case
fidentiaX: The Tradable Insurance Marketplace on Blockchain
By: Alexander Braun, Lauren H. Cohen and Jiahua Xu
Three years ago, Alvin Ang and his partner founded fidentiaX in Singapore, with the ambition to create the world’s first marketplace for tradable insurance policies on blockchain. With a 26-page white paper, the start-up closed a successful fundraising round through an... View Details
Keywords: Blockchain; Insurance; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Technology Adoption; Business Strategy; Insurance Industry; Technology Industry; Singapore
Braun, Alexander, Lauren H. Cohen, and Jiahua Xu. "fidentiaX: The Tradable Insurance Marketplace on Blockchain." Harvard Business School Case 219-116, May 2019. (Revised May 2020.)
- 2024
- Chapter
Managing, Preserving, and Unlocking Wealth through FinTech
By: Grace Headinger, Lauren Cohen and Zhaoheng Gong
In nearly every generation, a sentiment like Einstein’s has been expressed as a cautionary tale to constrain the development and application of technology. In spite of these calls, technology has time and again proven its utility and ability to improve across and upon... View Details
Headinger, Grace, Lauren Cohen, and Zhaoheng Gong. "Managing, Preserving, and Unlocking Wealth through FinTech." Chap. 11 in Research Handbook on Alternative Finance, edited by Franklin Allen and Meijun Qian, 250–281. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2024.
- June 2012
- Article
Decoding Inside Information
By: Lauren Cohen, Christopher Malloy and Lukasz Pomorski
Using a simple empirical strategy, we decode the information in insider trading. Exploiting the fact that insiders trade for a variety of reasons, we show that there is predictable, identifiable "routine" insider trading that is not informative for the future of firms.... View Details
Keywords: Strategy; Financial Markets; Forecasting and Prediction; Law Enforcement; Opportunities; Geographic Location; Business Earnings
Cohen, Lauren, Christopher Malloy, and Lukasz Pomorski. "Decoding Inside Information." Journal of Finance 67, no. 3 (June 2012): 1009–1043. (Winner of Chicago Quantitative Alliance Academic Paper Competition. First Prize presented by Chicago Quantitative Alliance. Winner of Institute for Quantitative Investment Research (INQUIRE) Grant presented by Institute for Quantitative Investment Research.)
- 12 Jun 2018
- First Look
New Research and Ideas, June 12, 2018
of the pace of technological substitution by providing insights on complementarities between technologies and horizontally differentiated human capital. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=53855 Buying... View Details
Keywords: Dina Gerdeman
- September 2024 (Revised May 2025)
- Case
Carrie Wang: Choosing Between the Family Firm and the Family Spirit
By: Lauren Cohen, Fei Wu and Sophia Pan
Carrie Wang, Investment Head of the Wang’s single-family office, contemplated her next career steps. As one of the first businessmen who had risen from China’s industrial rise, her father had grown his wealth to a considerable level, eventually requesting that his... View Details
Keywords: Family Office; Interests Of Consumers; Family Business; Business Growth and Maturation; Financial Management; Financial Strategy; Financial Markets; Investment Portfolio; Investment Return; Private Equity; Customer Relationship Management; Interests; Reputation; Work-Life Balance; Real Estate Industry; China
- December 2013
- Article
Legislating Stock Prices
By: Lauren Cohen, Karl Diether and Christopher Malloy
We demonstrate that legislation has a simple, yet previously undetected impact on stock prices. Exploiting the voting record of legislators whose constituents are the affected industries, we show that the votes of these "interested" legislators capture important... View Details
Keywords: Legislator Incentives; Voting; Return Predictability; Lobbying; Motivation and Incentives; Government Legislation; Stocks
Cohen, Lauren, Karl Diether, and Christopher Malloy. "Legislating Stock Prices." Journal of Financial Economics 110, no. 3 (December 2013): 574–595. (Winner of Fama-DFA Prize for the Best Paper Published in the Journal of Financial Economics in Asset Pricing (Distinguished Paper) 2013.)
- 2016
- Article
Cloaked Trading
By: Lauren Cohen, Dong Lou and Christopher J. Malloy
Using a novel, proprietary database of micro-level trading activities by asset managers, we show strong evidence of asset managers engaging in strategic trading in order to “cloak” their most valuable trades. This takes the form, for instance, of a manager who sells... View Details
Cohen, Lauren, Dong Lou, and Christopher J. Malloy. "Cloaked Trading." Journal of Investment Consulting 17, no. 2 (2016): 69–80. (Winner of the Best Paper Prize of the Journal of Investment Consulting Academic Paper Competition, 2016 ; Winner of the Institute for Quantitative Investment Research (INQUIRE) Grant, 2014.)
- October 2019
- Case
China Merchants Bank: Ushering in the Era of Family Office in China
By: Lauren Cohen, Hao Gao, Billy Chan and Dawn H. Lau
China Merchants Bank, the sixth-largest lender in China, intends to boost its family office business as a result of an increase in the population of ultra-high net worth individuals. Already ranked China’s number-one private bank with AUM exceeding US$300 billion, the... View Details
Keywords: Family Office; Strategy; Banks and Banking; Organizational Design; Competitive Strategy; Banking Industry; China
Cohen, Lauren, Hao Gao, Billy Chan, and Dawn H. Lau. "China Merchants Bank: Ushering in the Era of Family Office in China." Harvard Business School Case 220-032, October 2019.
- January 2025
- Case
AI Meets VC: The Data-Driven Revolution at Quantum Light Capital
By: Lauren Cohen, Grace Headinger and Sophia Pan
Ilya Kondrashov, CEO of Quantum Light Capital, was driven to harness AI for identifying high-potential scale-ups. Collaborating with Nik Storonsky, founder of Revolut, the duo observed that most venture capital (VC) decisions were heavily influenced by emotion, with... View Details
Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Business Finance; Data Analysis; Angel Investors; Cognitive Biases; Scale; Venture Capital; Investment; Business Model; Forecasting and Prediction; Technological Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Behavior; Cognition and Thinking; Public Opinion; Private Sector; Business Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Business Earnings; Behavioral Finance; AI and Machine Learning; Analytics and Data Science; Business Startups; Financial Services Industry; London; United Kingdom
Cohen, Lauren, Grace Headinger, and Sophia Pan. "AI Meets VC: The Data-Driven Revolution at Quantum Light Capital." Harvard Business School Case 225-053, January 2025.
- 07 Feb 2012
- First Look
First Look: February 7
has been divided by both worldview and practice. Why, in the face of the common challenge of dependence on imported Russian gas, have national reactions to such vulnerability varied so dramatically across the continent? And why have a... View Details
Keywords: Sean Silverthorne
- June 2020
- Article
Lazy Prices
By: Lauren Cohen, Christopher J. Malloy and Quoc Nguyen
We explore the implications of a subtle "default" choice that firms make in their regular reporting practices, namely that firms typically repeat what they most recently reported. Using the complete history of regular quarterly and annual filings by U.S. corporations... View Details
Keywords: Default Behavior; Inertia; Firms; Disclosure; Information; Business or Company Management; Behavior; Annual Reports; Corporate Disclosure; Financial Reporting; United States
Cohen, Lauren, Christopher J. Malloy, and Quoc Nguyen. "Lazy Prices." Journal of Finance 75, no. 3 (June 2020): 1371–1415. (Winner of the First Prize, Chicago Quantitative Alliance Academic Paper Competition, 2016. Winner of the Jack Treynor Prize for superior work in the field of investment management and financial markets, sponsored by the Q-Group,The Institute for Quantitative Research in Finance, 2016. Winner of the Hillcrest Behavioral Finance Prize, 2016.)
- Article
The Growing Problem of Patent Trolling
By: Lauren Cohen, Umit Gurun and Scott Duke Kominers
The last decade has seen a sharp rise in patent litigation in the U.S., with 2015 having one of the highest patent lawsuit counts on record. In theory, this could be a consequence of growth in the commercialization of technology and innovation—patent lawsuits increase... View Details
Keywords: Patent Aggregators; Patent Litigation; Patent Pools; Patent Trolls; Patents; Lawsuits and Litigation; United States
Cohen, Lauren, Umit Gurun, and Scott Duke Kominers. "The Growing Problem of Patent Trolling." Science 352, no. 6285 (April 29, 2016): 521–522. (Explanatory Video.)
- February 2017
- Article
Resident Networks and Corporate Connections: Evidence from World War II Internment Camps
By: Lauren Cohen, Umit Gurun and Christopher J. Malloy
We demonstrate that simply by using the ethnic makeup surrounding a firm’s location, we can predict, on average, which trade links are valuable for firms. Using customs and port authority data on the international shipments of all U.S. publicly traded firms, we show... View Details
Keywords: Information Networks; Trade Links; Firm Behavior; Networks; Geographic Location; Ethnicity; Organizations; Trade
Cohen, Lauren, Umit Gurun, and Christopher J. Malloy. "Resident Networks and Corporate Connections: Evidence from World War II Internment Camps." Journal of Finance 72, no. 1 (February 2017): 207–248. (Winner of First Prize, the Inaugural Hakan Orbay Research Award, 2015.)
- March 2021
- Case
Litigation Finance 2.0: LexShares
By: Lauren Cohen, Spencer C. N. Hagist and Yago Zavalia Gahan
Litigation finance—also referred to as third party litigation funding—was in its relative infancy as an asset class when Jay Greenberg and Max Volsky made a platform-play in the space. Seven years later, the market was far from "mainstream," but nonetheless had grown... View Details
Cohen, Lauren, Spencer C. N. Hagist, and Yago Zavalia Gahan. "Litigation Finance 2.0: LexShares." Harvard Business School Case 221-092, March 2021.
- 2023
- Working Paper
Too Many Managers: The Strategic Use of Titles to Avoid Overtime Payments
By: Lauren Cohen, Umit Gurun and N. Bugra Ozel
We find widespread evidence of firms appearing to avoid paying overtime wages by exploiting a
federal law that allows them to do so for employees termed as “managers” and paid a salary above a
pre-defined dollar threshold. We show that listings for salaried positions... View Details
Cohen, Lauren, Umit Gurun, and N. Bugra Ozel. "Too Many Managers: The Strategic Use of Titles to Avoid Overtime Payments." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 30826, January 2023.
- 2013
- Chapter
Who Chooses Board Members?
By: Ali Akyol and Lauren Cohen
We exploit a recent regulation passed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to explore the nomination of board members to US publicly traded firms. In particular, we focus on firms’ use of executive search firms versus allowing internal members (often... View Details
Keywords: Boards; Boards Of Directors; Executive Search Firms; Governance; SEC Regulation; Governing and Advisory Boards; Management Succession; Executive Compensation
Akyol, Ali, and Lauren Cohen. "Who Chooses Board Members?" In Advances in Financial Economics, Vol. 16, edited by Kose John, Anil K. Makhija, and Stephen P. Ferris, 43–77. Emerald Group Publishing, 2013.
- 03 Nov 2009
- First Look
First Look: Nov. 3
self-report of the licensee. The self-reporting aspect of the environment gives rise to demand for auditing by the licensor or third-party attestation by the licensee. We characterize the optimal royalty... View Details
Keywords: Martha Lagace