Finance

- October 2025
- Article
The Retail Habitat

By: Toomas Laarits and Marco Sammon

Retail investors trade hard-to-value stocks. Controlling for size, stocks with a high share of retail-initiated trades are composed of more intangible capital, have longer duration cash-flows and a higher likelihood of being mispriced. Consistent with retail-heavy stocks being harder to value, we document that such stocks are less sensitive to earnings news. As an additional consequence, the well-known earnings announcer risk premium is limited to low retail stocks only. Further, high-retail stocks are more sensitive to retail order flow and are especially expensive to trade around earnings announcements. Overall, the findings document a new dimension of investor heterogeneity and suggest the comparative advantage of retail in holding hard-to-value stocks.
- October 2025
- Article
The Retail Habitat

By: Toomas Laarits and Marco Sammon

Retail investors trade hard-to-value stocks. Controlling for size, stocks with a high share of retail-initiated trades are composed of more intangible capital, have longer duration cash-flows and a higher likelihood of being mispriced. Consistent with retail-heavy stocks being harder to value, we document that such stocks are less sensitive to...
- October 2025
- Article
Measurement and Effects of Bank Exit Policies

By: Daniel Green and Boris Vallée

We study whether exit policies by financial institutions have financial and real consequences on the firms they target, using bank coal exit policies as a laboratory. In contrast to theories assuming high capital substitutability, we find large effects of these policies. Bank exit policies negatively affect both the financing and operation of coal assets. Substitution to other sources and providers of capital appears to be limited. Coal power plants owned by firms exposed to exit policies are more likely to retire, translating into lower CO2 emissions. Exit policies have reduced CO2e emissions from energy production by an estimated 0.62 gigaton.
- October 2025
- Article
Measurement and Effects of Bank Exit Policies

By: Daniel Green and Boris Vallée

We study whether exit policies by financial institutions have financial and real consequences on the firms they target, using bank coal exit policies as a laboratory. In contrast to theories assuming high capital substitutability, we find large effects of these policies. Bank exit policies negatively affect both the financing and operation of coal...
- September 2025
- Case
Partners Capital: Launching Private Investing Evergreen Funds for Retail Investors

By: Luis M. Viceira, Roma Patel and Kristen Virkler
- September 2025
- Case
Partners Capital: Launching Private Investing Evergreen Funds for Retail Investors

By: Luis M. Viceira, Roma Patel and Kristen Virkler

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

The Retail Habitat

By: Toomas Laarits and Marco Sammon

October 2025 |
Article |
Journal of Financial Economics

Retail investors trade hard-to-value stocks. Controlling for size, stocks with a high share of retail-initiated trades are composed of more intangible capital, have longer duration cash-flows and a higher likelihood of being mispriced. Consistent with retail-heavy stocks being harder to value, we document that such stocks are less sensitive to earnings news. As an additional consequence, the well-known earnings announcer risk premium is limited to low retail stocks only. Further, high-retail stocks are more sensitive to retail order flow and are especially expensive to trade around earnings announcements. Overall, the findings document a new dimension of investor heterogeneity and suggest the comparative advantage of retail in holding hard-to-value stocks.

Keywords: Retail; Retail Trade; Intangible Capital; Mispricing; Institutional Investing; Stocks; Valuation

Citation

Measurement and Effects of Bank Exit Policies

By: Daniel Green and Boris Vallée

October 2025 |
Article |
Journal of Financial Economics

We study whether exit policies by financial institutions have financial and real consequences on the firms they target, using bank coal exit policies as a laboratory. In contrast to theories assuming high capital substitutability, we find large effects of these policies. Bank exit policies negatively affect both the financing and operation of coal assets. Substitution to other sources and providers of capital appears to be limited. Coal power plants owned by firms exposed to exit policies are more likely to retire, translating into lower CO2 emissions. Exit policies have reduced CO2e emissions from energy production by an estimated 0.62 gigaton.

Keywords: Coal Power; Financing and Loans; Banks and Banking; Policy; Energy Industry

Citation

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Partners Capital: Launching Private Investing Evergreen Funds for Retail Investors

By: Luis M. Viceira, Roma Patel and Kristen Virkler

September 2025 |
Case |
Faculty Research

Citation

Educators

Purchase

Flying Solo for the Team: The Grupo Brio Family Office

By: Lauren Cohen and Sophia Pan

September 2025 |
Case |
Faculty Research

Gabriel Sragovicz, G1 of the Grupo Brío Family Office, wondered who he would hire to lead his family office (FO). For many years, the current CEO (FO Head) José Daniel Miranda Fumero aided Sragovicz in the construction of the family entity, building the organization “brick by brick” while maintaining privacy and smooth operation of Instacredit, the operating firm. Sragovicz and Fumero’s collaboration was so significant, the two avoided flying on the same plane together to avoid the risk of both players – who were the only ones knowing of essential information relating to the FO – perishing. After attending a family office Executive Education program, Fumero realized that he did not foresee working in family offices in the long term. He would, however, assist Sragovicz one final time: helping to find a suitable, and hopefully replicable successor, to take over the reins.

Citation

Educators

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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