Finance

- 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,...
- 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...
- 2025
- Working Paper
Partisan Corporate Speech

By: William Cassidy and Elisabeth Kempf

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 Democraticleaning 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.
- 2025
- Working Paper
Partisan Corporate Speech

By: William Cassidy and Elisabeth Kempf

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 Democraticleaning language,...

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

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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

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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 Democraticleaning 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.

Citation

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The Limits of Insurance Demand and the Growing Protection Gap

By: Parinitha Sastry, Tess Scharlemann, Ishita Sen and Ana-Maria Tenekedjieva

2025 |
Working Paper |
Faculty Research

In a world with rising risk, how much are U.S. households willing to pay for homeowners insurance, and what does their demand imply for the future of insurance markets? We provide the first estimates of household willingness to pay for homeowners insurance and the drivers of household insurance demand elasticities by exploiting quasi-exogenous regulatory shocks to insurance pricing. We utilize newly available individual-level data on homeowners insurance contracts covering the entire United States for over a decade, with rich information on mortgage contracts, property characteristics, and climate exposures. We document pervasive under-insurance, particularly among the most financially vulnerable households. We find that even at actuarially fair premiums, households’ willingness to pay is below expected losses, and demand remains elastic—results that are inconsistent with the textbook models of insurance demand. Financial constraints are a key force: constrained households reduce coverage as premiums rise, while unconstrained households borrow more to maintain insurance coverage. Exogenous increases in the cost of credit also reduce coverage demand. These results raise the concern that financial constraints reduce willingness to pay for insurance even below the actuarially fair price required for insurers to remain solvent, suggesting that the market may disappear for the most constrained, financially vulnerable households. If prices were to continue growing at historical rates moving forward, our estimates imply that between 17% to 31% of households would hit binding LTV constraints and be forced to reduce coverage substantially, meaning insurance markets may shrink even as losses from natural disasters rise.

Keywords: Climate Change; Risk and Uncertainty; Insurance; Personal Finance; Consumer Behavior; Mortgages

Citation

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The Micro-Family Office: Aamir Rehman

By: Lauren Cohen and Sophia Pan

May 2025 |
Case |
Faculty Research

With a successful career and strong academic credentials, Aamir Rehman sought to design a life grounded in autonomy. For him, this meant serving on boards, continuing his professorship, and ensuring a secure and comfortable life for his family. While he didn’t possess a billionaire’s fortune, Rehman had accumulated a net asset value of $8.6 million—an amount he believed was more than sufficient to support his family’s lifestyle, especially as he and his partner continued working in their own professional roles. Rather than outsourcing full control to a private bank or wealth advisor, Rehman established what he referred to as a “Micro-Family Office.” Through this model, he hired part-time professionals to help design and oversee his investment strategy, allowing for personalized oversight without the cost and scale of a traditional family office. As he refined this structure, Rehman noticed that few of his peers (many of whom shared similar career paths) had taken this approach. That prompted a broader question: Was this model replicable and sustainable for others in his position? And more critically, could it withstand economic uncertainty and evolving family needs over time?

Citation

Educators

Corporate Actions as Moral Issues

By: Zwetelina Iliewa, Elisabeth Kempf and Oliver Spalt

2025 |
Working Paper |
Faculty Research

We examine nonpecuniary preferences across a broad set of corporate actions using a representative sample of the U.S. population. Our core findings, based on large-scale online surveys, are that (i) self-reported nonpecuniary concerns are large both for stock market investors and non-investors; (ii) concerns about the treatment of workers and CEO pay rank highest—higher than concerns about workforce diversity and fossil energy usage; (iii) moral universalism emerges as an important driver of nonpecuniary preferences. Combined, our findings provide new evidence on the importance of moral concerns as a key determinant of nonpecuniary preferences over corporate actions.

Keywords: Public Opinion; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Moral Sensibility

Citation

Find at Harvard

Techint: Strategic Choices for Community Impact

By: Lauren Cohen, Virak Prum, Kenneth Charman, Pedro Levindo and Mariana Cal

April 2025 |
Case |
Faculty Research

In early 2024 Erika Bienek, Chief Community Relations Officer at Techint, had to decide whether to invest in a new company-owned and operated technical school in Veracruz, Mexico, or invest instead in strengthening the city’s public education system. Techint, a global industrial conglomerate with $38.4 billion in annual revenues and 97,000 employees in 2023, had a longstanding commitment to community development through education. Over the past five years, the group invested $204 million in its Community Relations program, focusing on four synergistic education initiatives. The Roberto Rocca Technical School (RRTS)—owned and operated by Techint—offered high-quality technical education to underprivileged students, while other programs strengthened public school infrastructure, provided scholarships, and supported after-school learning. TenarisTamsa, Techint’s subsidiary in Veracruz, had been active in the region for decades, and a new RRTS would expand its footprint. However, some stakeholders argued that broader impact could be achieved by supporting public schools serving over 40,000 students or by launching a community training center to meet urgent workforce development needs in the local energy sector. With Techint’s tradition of deep community engagement and rigorous standards, the question for Bienek and her team was how to allocate the newly earmarked $30 million to generate the greatest long-term impact for Veracruz—through direct, measurable educational transformation, or broader support for the public system.