Finance
Beauty, Power, Art, and Finance
Art, money, and power twist together in complex ways, in a dynamic that may be older than humans. In his research, Yale SOM’s William Goetzmann traces the social meaning of art and money and the ways they set pecking orders, create art superstars, and blow up into senseless bubbles.
Swings in Building Permits Can Help Predict Financial Downturns
Yale SOM’s Cameron LaPoint and his co-author painstakingly assembled a century of local building permits. Again and again, they found, peaks in the issuing of permits preceded periods of economic turmoil.
Why It’s Harder for Women Founders to Get Venture Capital Funding
A new study co-authored by Yale SOM’s Heather Tookes shows that women are less likely to get funding compared to men with similar entrepreneurial history. One reason is that investors who have experienced a poor outcome from a woman-led startup shy away from other women founders—but benefitting from successes of women founders doesn’t lead them to invest more.
Do Nudges Help Americans Save for Retirement? Not as Much as We Thought.
Two decades ago, Prof. James Choi’s research suggested that automatic enrollment and escalation and could have a sizeable impact on savings. Now he and his co-authors have looked at these programs again and found that under real-world conditions, the effect on savings is much smaller than expected.
What Will It Take to Make Housing More Affordable?
We asked Prof. Cameron LaPoint, whose research interests include real estate and household finance, if Kamala Harris’s proposal can make a difference.
The Fed Is Cutting Rates Soon. Should I Wait to Get a Loan?
Many homebuyers and other borrowers incorrectly believe that they get a lower rate by waiting until a cut becomes official, according to Prof. Kelly Shue. This misconception is so widespread that it can undercut the effectiveness of Fed monetary policy.
Trump Is Already Rattling the Stock Market
Professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, co-author Steven Tian, and investor and analyst Whitney Tilson write that the pattern is familiar from Trump’s term in office, when his remarks frequently swayed markets—usually for the worse.
A Loan Program Can Help Close the Green-Building Gap
In a new study, Prof. Cameron LaPoint and his co-authors weigh the positives and negatives of a lending program that puts climate resiliency upgrades within reach of financially constrained homeowners.
Should the Federal Reserve Reveal More about Its Stress Test Models?
Greg Feldberg, director of research at the Yale Program on Financial Stability, argues that the Fed already discloses more than any other authority in the world about its stress test models and warns that revealing more could repeat mistakes made in the run-up to the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-09.
Investors Reward Gender-Diverse Companies
Advocates have long made the case that hiring more women is the right thing to do, and that gender diversity helps firms be more effective. New research from Yale SOM’s Jennifer Dannals suggests another reason for a gender-diverse workforce: investors love to see it.
CEOs Invest Less in Corporate Social Responsibility When Their Own Money Is At Stake
A study co-authored by Yale SOM’s Kelly Shue finds that when CEOs have a larger financial stake in their companies, or when they face stronger shareholder oversight, they cut back spending on corporate social responsibility efforts.
