Topic: Risk Management

A view of a petrochemical plant at night Research Brief / Competition

Sunk Costs Work as Barrier to Exit

Firms endure losses in hopes of a turnaround

A cityscape at sunset overlaid with a grid of lighted network Research Brief / Banking

Banks Transmit Financial Shocks, Including from Natural Disasters

How a localized flood may result in fewer loans to a far-off community

The old Continental Illinois building in Chicago Research Brief / Finance

Sorting Out Conflicts of Interest in Commercial Loan Syndicates

Syndicate voting rules reflect varying levels of trust and familiarity

A crowd of people holding numbered range bidding paddles Research Brief / Strategy

What Causes Overbidding in Auctions?

Does it come down to poor valuations or poor strategy?

Illustration of a bridge made out of gears with a red connecting section in the middle Research Brief / Banking

Banks, Freed to Operate Across State Lines, Helped Stabilize the Economy

Lenders financed expansion in some markets, offsetting problems in others

Computer screen with stock trading software Research Brief / Trading

One Data Set That Warns Against Margin Trading

As a group, Chinese futures traders more likely to suffer margin call than to profit

Two blue cartoon characters unravel a scribble knot black thread Research Brief / Markets

Separating Auditing from Consulting: More Complex than it Seems

Market concentration, price and quality drive choice of firms

A bubble refracts light and the image of a window Research Brief / Markets

Market Bubbles Aren’t Entirely Irrational Exuberance

A model examines the relationships between innovation, speculation and market values

Power plant smoke stacks Research Brief / Energy

What Delivers a 20-to-1 ROI in the Energy Business?

Highly technical probabilistic risk assessments at nuclear plants improve safety and pay for themselves many times over

Illustration of people riding a rollercoaster Research Brief / Investing

Rethinking Buy-and-Hold Investing

The case for using rising market volatility as a signal to pare back on stocks — does higher risk always mean higher return?

Street sign with Past, Present, Future and collage of bond certificates Research Brief / Bond Market

With Bonds, the Past Can Be Prologue

Patterns in corporate bond returns include abrupt short-term performance reversals and “momentum” waves that persist

Illustration of a character wearing a hat covering their ears Research Brief / Investing

Ignorance — About One’s Investments, Anyway — Isn’t Always Bliss

Valentin Haddad’s research looks at the phenomenon of “information aversion,” when individual investors stop tracking their portfolios for fear of bad news

New York Met Life building Research Brief / Investing

How Life Insurers Insulate the Markets from Turmoil

Valentin Haddad’s research finds that insurers’ patient investing shields risky assets — and those who hold them — from steeper declines

Monochrome photo of Wall Street Research Brief / Investing

To Wall Street, There’s No Crisis Like a Banking Crisis

Tyler Muir finds that neither war nor deep recession darkens investor sentiment like sudden turmoil in the financial system

A castle with a moat Research Brief / Investing

The Moat That Keeps Complex Asset Strategies Profitable

Andrea Eisfeldt finds that hedge funds with infrastructure to execute sophisticated arbitrage crowd out less-expert investors

FDIC logo on a window Research Brief / Banking

Calculating a Value for the Government Support Banks Enjoy

Researchers’ model could quantify the risks in the growing movement to ease up on Dodd-Frank regulations