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Finance

Finance

  • Faculty
  • Curriculum
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Overview Faculty Curriculum Seminars & Conferences Awards & Honors Doctoral Students
    • September 2025
    • Article

    Using Satellites and Phones to Evaluate and Promote Agricultural Technology Adoption: Evidence from Smallholder Farms in India

    By: Shawn Cole, Tomoko Harigaya, Grady Killeen and Aparna Krishna

    This paper evaluates a low-cost, customized soil nutrient management advisory service in India. As a methodological contribution, we examine whether and in which settings satellite measurements may be effective at estimating both agricultural yields and treatment effects. The intervention improves self-reported fertilizer management practices, though not enough to measurably affect yields. Satellite measurements calibrated using OLS produce more precise point estimates than farmer-reported data, suggesting power gains. However, linear models, common in the literature, likely produce biased estimates. We propose an alternative procedure, using two-stage least squares. In settings without attrition, this approach obtains lower statistical power than self-reported yields; in settings with differential attrition, it may substantially increase power. We include a “cookbook'' and code that should allow other researchers to use remote sensing for yield estimation and program evaluation.

    • September 2025
    • Article

    Using Satellites and Phones to Evaluate and Promote Agricultural Technology Adoption: Evidence from Smallholder Farms in India

    By: Shawn Cole, Tomoko Harigaya, Grady Killeen and Aparna Krishna

    This paper evaluates a low-cost, customized soil nutrient management advisory service in India. As a methodological contribution, we examine whether and in which settings satellite measurements may be effective at estimating both agricultural yields and treatment effects. The intervention improves self-reported fertilizer management practices,...

    • 2025
    • Working Paper

    Fiscal Externalities of Transaction Taxes: Evidence from the Los Angeles Mansion Tax

    By: Daniel Green, Vikram Jambulapati, Jack Liebersohn and Tejaswi Velayudhan

    We estimate the fiscal externalities of a property transfer tax, the Los Angeles “Mansion Tax”, on the revenues from property taxes when assessed values are closely tied to transactions. In California, as in over half of U.S. states, growth in tax as- sessments between transactions lags market values, so any reduction in transaction frequency reduces the growth of property tax revenue. The fiscal externality is sizable: the resulting property tax revenue loss conservatively offsets at least two-thirds of the revenue generated by the transfer tax. The net revenue loss is larger for high-value and commercial properties.

    • 2025
    • Working Paper

    Fiscal Externalities of Transaction Taxes: Evidence from the Los Angeles Mansion Tax

    By: Daniel Green, Vikram Jambulapati, Jack Liebersohn and Tejaswi Velayudhan

    We estimate the fiscal externalities of a property transfer tax, the Los Angeles “Mansion Tax”, on the revenues from property taxes when assessed values are closely tied to transactions. In California, as in over half of U.S. states, growth in tax as- sessments between transactions lags market values, so any reduction in transaction frequency...

    • June 2025
    • Article

    Social Security and Trends in Wealth Inequality

    By: Sylvain Catherine, Max Miller and Natasha Sarin

    Recent influential work finds large increases in inequality in the U.S. based on measures of wealth concentration that notably exclude the value of social insurance programs. This paper shows that top wealth shares have not changed much over the last three decades when Social Security is properly accounted for. This is because Social Security wealth increased substantially from $7.2 trillion in 1989 to $40.6 trillion in 2019 and now represents nearly 50% of the wealth of the bottom 90% of the wealth distribution. This finding is robust to potential changes to taxes and benefits in response to system financing concerns.

    • June 2025
    • Article

    Social Security and Trends in Wealth Inequality

    By: Sylvain Catherine, Max Miller and Natasha Sarin

    Recent influential work finds large increases in inequality in the U.S. based on measures of wealth concentration that notably exclude the value of social insurance programs. This paper shows that top wealth shares have not changed much over the last three decades when Social Security is properly accounted for. This is because Social Security...

About the Unit

Our strategy is to assemble and nurture a faculty whose interests and skills complement each other, and who work well together:

a) to produce a broad range of finance-related research that is published in top-tier scientific and practitioner journals, and that addresses issues of present and future importance to managers (including regulators and policy makers);

b) to develop highly-relevant and intellectually rigorous MBA and executive education courses; and

c) to mentor future academics through the Business Economics doctoral program.

Our applied focus and access to business organizations are major advantages which are reinforced by our students and our case-based approach. We have a faculty with broad expertise, and we have resources, field contacts, and institutional support, all of which we can leverage to do richer work and be more productive than we could at other institutions.

Recent Publications

Using Satellites and Phones to Evaluate and Promote Agricultural Technology Adoption: Evidence from Smallholder Farms in India

By: Shawn Cole, Tomoko Harigaya, Grady Killeen and Aparna Krishna
  • September 2025 |
  • Article |
  • Journal of Development Economics
This paper evaluates a low-cost, customized soil nutrient management advisory service in India. As a methodological contribution, we examine whether and in which settings satellite measurements may be effective at estimating both agricultural yields and treatment effects. The intervention improves self-reported fertilizer management practices, though not enough to measurably affect yields. Satellite measurements calibrated using OLS produce more precise point estimates than farmer-reported data, suggesting power gains. However, linear models, common in the literature, likely produce biased estimates. We propose an alternative procedure, using two-stage least squares. In settings without attrition, this approach obtains lower statistical power than self-reported yields; in settings with differential attrition, it may substantially increase power. We include a “cookbook'' and code that should allow other researchers to use remote sensing for yield estimation and program evaluation.
Keywords: Measurement and Metrics; Mathematical Methods; Analytics and Data Science; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; India
Citation
Read Now
Related
Cole, Shawn, Tomoko Harigaya, Grady Killeen, and Aparna Krishna. "Using Satellites and Phones to Evaluate and Promote Agricultural Technology Adoption: Evidence from Smallholder Farms in India." Journal of Development Economics 176 (September 2025).

Fiscal Externalities of Transaction Taxes: Evidence from the Los Angeles Mansion Tax

By: Daniel Green, Vikram Jambulapati, Jack Liebersohn and Tejaswi Velayudhan
  • 2025 |
  • Working Paper |
  • Faculty Research
We estimate the fiscal externalities of a property transfer tax, the Los Angeles “Mansion Tax”, on the revenues from property taxes when assessed values are closely tied to transactions. In California, as in over half of U.S. states, growth in tax as- sessments between transactions lags market values, so any reduction in transaction frequency reduces the growth of property tax revenue. The fiscal externality is sizable: the resulting property tax revenue loss conservatively offsets at least two-thirds of the revenue generated by the transfer tax. The net revenue loss is larger for high-value and commercial properties.
Keywords: Public Finance; Real Estate; Property Demand; Taxation; Property; Revenue; Los Angeles
Citation
Related
Green, Daniel, Vikram Jambulapati, Jack Liebersohn, and Tejaswi Velayudhan. "Fiscal Externalities of Transaction Taxes: Evidence from the Los Angeles Mansion Tax." SSRN Working Paper Series, No. 5273034, June 2025.

Social Security and Trends in Wealth Inequality

By: Sylvain Catherine, Max Miller and Natasha Sarin
  • June 2025 |
  • Article |
  • Journal of Finance
Recent influential work finds large increases in inequality in the U.S. based on measures of wealth concentration that notably exclude the value of social insurance programs. This paper shows that top wealth shares have not changed much over the last three decades when Social Security is properly accounted for. This is because Social Security wealth increased substantially from $7.2 trillion in 1989 to $40.6 trillion in 2019 and now represents nearly 50% of the wealth of the bottom 90% of the wealth distribution. This finding is robust to potential changes to taxes and benefits in response to system financing concerns.
Keywords: Wealth; Equality and Inequality; Taxation; Insurance; Welfare
Citation
Read Now
Purchase
Related
Catherine, Sylvain, Max Miller, and Natasha Sarin. "Social Security and Trends in Wealth Inequality." Journal of Finance 80, no. 3 (June 2025): 1497–1531.

Index Rebalancing and Stock Market Composition: Do Indexes Time the Market?

By: Marco Sammon and John J. Shim
  • Working Paper |
  • Faculty Research
Value-weighted indexes must rebalance in response to stock market composition changes, e.g., issuance, buybacks, and IPOs. In doing so, existing index funds implicitly engage in market timing. Index funds’ long-short rebalancing portfolios have a -3.5% annual return and load negatively on value and profitability factors. We estimate these trades impose a 60 bps annual index-level performance drag. We explore alternative value-weighted indexes that rebalance less frequently and delay responding to compositional changes. These policies benefit investors by reducing trading costs and improving market timing, saving 40 bps annually, an order of magnitude greater than index fund fees.
Keywords: Investment Funds; Financial Markets; Market Timing; Investment Return
Citation
Related
Sammon, Marco, and John J. Shim. "Index Rebalancing and Stock Market Composition: Do Indexes Time the Market?" SSRN Working Paper Series, No. 5080459, May 2025.

gWorks

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce G. Yudkoff
  • May 2025 |
  • Teaching Note |
  • Faculty Research
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 220-093.
Citation
Purchase
Related
Ruback, Richard S., and Royce G. Yudkoff. "gWorks." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 225-074, May 2025.

Bed Bath & Beyond: The New Strategy to Drive Shareholder Value

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Edward A. Meyer
  • May 2025 |
  • Teaching Plan |
  • Faculty Research
Citation
Purchase
Related
Esty, Benjamin C., and Edward A. Meyer. "Bed Bath & Beyond: The New Strategy to Drive Shareholder Value." Harvard Business School Teaching Plan 725-434, May 2025.

Heritage Holding

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff
  • May 2025 |
  • Teaching Note |
  • Faculty Research
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 223-002.
Citation
Purchase
Related
Ruback, Richard S., and Royce Yudkoff. "Heritage Holding." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 225-079, May 2025.

Partisan Corporate Speech

By: William Cassidy and Elisabeth Kempf
  • 2025 |
  • Working Paper |
  • Faculty Research
We construct a novel measure of partisan corporate speech using natural language processing techniques and use it to establish three stylized facts. First, the volume of partisan corporate speech has risen sharply between 2012 and 2022. Second, this increase has been disproportionately driven by companies adopting more Democratic leaning language, a trend that is widespread across industries, geographies, and CEO political affiliations. Third, partisan corporate statements are followed by negative abnormal stock returns, with significant heterogeneity by shareholders’ degree of alignment with the statement. Finally, we propose a theoretical framework and provide suggestive empirical evidence that these trends are at least in part driven by a shift in investors’ nonpecuniary preferences with respect to partisan corporate speech.
Keywords: Natural Language Processing; Perspective; Communication; Public Opinion; Business and Shareholder Relations; Trends
Citation
Read Now
Related
Cassidy, William, and Elisabeth Kempf. "Partisan Corporate Speech." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 05-056, May 2025.
More Publications

In the News

    • 28 May 2025
    • Harvard Business School

    Four HBS Faculty Members Receive Class of 2025 Faculty Teaching Award Honors

    Re: Meg Rithmire, Andy Wu, Edward (Ted) Berk & Rawi Abdelal
    • 21 May 2025
    • Financial Times

    A Mooted Fix for the Treasury Market May Actually Increase Systemic Risk

    By: Wenxin Du
    • 16 Apr 2025
    • Economist

    Can the Euro Go Global?

    Re: Elisabeth Kempf
→More Faculty News

HBS Working Knowledge

    • 12 Nov 2024

    Inside One Startup's Journey to Break Down Hiring (and Funding) Barriers

    Re: Paul A. Gompers
    • 08 Nov 2024

    How Private Investors Can Help Solve Africa's Climate Crisis

    Re: John D. Macomber
    • 29 Oct 2024

    Can a Coffee Shop in Utah Help Solve Underemployment for People with Disabilities?

    Re: Richard S. Ruback
→More Working Knowledge Articles

Harvard Business Publishing

    • September–October 2024
    • Article

    Should a Family Business Accept a Returning Daughter’s Radical Proposal?

    By: John D. Macomber
    • May 2025
    • Case

    RTX's Lifetime Income Strategy: Shaping the Future of Retirement

    By: Daniel Green, Luis M. Viceira and Sarah Mehta
    • 2017
    • Book

    HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business: Think Big, Buy Small, Own Your Own Company

    By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff
→More Harvard Business Publishing

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Harvard Business School seeks candidates in all fields for full time positions. Candidates with outstanding records in PhD or DBA programs are encouraged to apply.
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Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
financeunit@hbs.edu

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