Shai Benjamin Bernstein

Shai Bernstein is an Associate Professor in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School and a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). Much of his research focuses on financial issues related to start-ups, and high growth firms, and the interaction of these issues with innovation and entrepreneurial activity. He teaches the Entrepreneurial Finance course in the MBA elective curriculum. Shai completed his Ph.D. in Business Economics at Harvard University. Prior to joining Harvard Business School, Shai spent eight years as a faculty at Stanford Graduate School of Business. 

Working Papers

• Bernstein, Shai, Kunal Mehta, and Richard Townsend. "Does Venture Capital Attract Human Capital? Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 21-049, October 2020. View Details
• Bernstein, Shai Benjamin, Richard Townsend, and Ting Xu. "Flight to Safety: How Economic Downturns Affect Talent Flows to Startups." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 21-045, September 2020. View Details
• Bernstein, Shai Benjamin, Rebecca Diamond, Timothy McQuade, and Beatriz Pousada. "The Contribution of High-Skilled Immigrants to Innovation in the United States." Working Paper, November 2018. View Details
• Bernstein, Shai Benjamin, Emanuele Colonnelli, and Timothy McQuade. "Who Creates New Firms When Local Opportunities Arise?" Working Paper, February 2019. View Details

Journal Articles

• Bernstein, S., T. McQuade, and R. Townsend. "Do Household Wealth Shocks Affect Productivity? Evidence from Innovative Workers During the Great Recession." Journal of Finance 76, no. 1 (February 2021): 57–111. View Details
• Bernstein, Shai, Abhishek Dev, and Josh Lerner. "The Creation and Evolution of Entrepreneurial Public Markets." Journal of Financial Economics 136, no. 2 (May 2020): 307–329. View Details
• Bernstein, Shai, Emanuele Colonnelli, Xavier Giroud, and Benjamin Iverson. "Bankruptcy Spillovers." Special Issue on Labor and Finance. Journal of Financial Economics 133, no. 3 (September 2019): 608–633. View Details
• Bernstein, Shai, Josh Lerner, and Filippo Mezzanotti. "Private Equity and Financial Fragility during the Crisis." Review of Financial Studies 32, no. 4 (April 2019): 1309–1373. (Earlier version distributed as National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 23626 and Harvard Business School Working Paper No. 18-005.) View Details
• Bernstein, S., E. Colonnelli, and B. Iverson. "Asset Allocation in Bankruptcy." Journal of Finance 74, no. 1 (February 2019): 5–53. (Lead Article.) View Details
• Bernstein, S., A. Korteweg, and K. Laws. "Attracting Early Stage Investors: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment." Journal of Finance 72, no. 2 (April 2017): 509–538. (Lead Article.) View Details
• Bernstein, Shai, and Albert Sheen. "The Operational Consequences of Private Equity Buyouts: Evidence from the Restaurant Industry." Review of Financial Studies 29, no. 9 (September 2016): 2387–2418. View Details
• Bernstein, S., X. Giroud, and R. Townsend. "The Impact of Venture Capital Monitoring." Journal of Finance 71, no. 4 (August 2016): 1591–1622. View Details
• Bernstein, Shai, Josh Lerner, Morten Sorensen, and Per Stromberg. "Private Equity and Industry Performance." Management Science 63, no. 4 (April 2017): 1198–1213. View Details
• Bernstein, S. "Does Going Public Affect Innovation?" Journal of Finance 70, no. 4 (August 2015): 1365–1403. (Brattle Prize Winner for Best Paper in the Journal of Finance.) View Details
• Bernstein, Shai, Josh Lerner, and Antoinette Schoar. "The Investment Strategies of Sovereign Wealth Funds." Journal of Economic Perspectives 27, no. 2 (Spring 2013): 219–238. View Details
• Bernstein, Shai, and Eyal Winter. "Contracting with Heterogeneous Externalities." American Economic Journal: Microeconomics 4, no. 2 (May 2012): 50–76. View Details

Cases and Teaching Materials

• Bernstein, Shai. "CleanWater, Inc.: Running Dry & Out of Time." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 821-048, October 2020. View Details
• Bernstein, Shai. "NewView Capital and Venture Capital Secondaries." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 821-049, October 2020. View Details
• Lerner, Josh, Shai Bernstein, and Terrence Shu. "PROOF: Pro Rata Opportunity Fund." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 820-085, January 2020. View Details
• Lerner, Josh, Shai Bernstein, Ann Leamon, and Richard Sessa. "GeBBS Healthcare Solutions: Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind? (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 820-074, December 2019. View Details
• Lerner, Josh, Shai Bernstein, and Terrence Shu. "PROOF: Pro Rata Opportunity Fund." Harvard Business School Case 820-030, August 2019. View Details
• Lerner, Josh, Shai Bernstein, Ann Leamon, and Richard Sessa. "GeBBS Healthcare Solutions: Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?" Harvard Business School Case 820-041, December 2019. View Details
• Lerner, Josh, Shai Bernstein, and Ann Leamon. "Hony Capital and Jushi Group." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 820-073, December 2019. View Details
• Lerner, Josh, Shai Bernstein, and Ann Leamon. "Hony Capital and Jushi Group." Harvard Business School Case 820-040, October 2019. View Details
• Bernstein, Shai Benjamin. "GeBBS Healthcare Solutions: Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind? (A) and (B)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 820-094, January 2020. View Details
• Bernstein, Shai, Ramana Nanda, and Allison Ciechanover. "NewView Capital and Venture Capital Secondaries." Harvard Business School Case 820-038, October 2019. (Revised January 2020.) View Details

Awards & Honors

Winner of the 2019 Charles River Associates Award for Best Paper on Corporate Finance from the Western Finance Association with Rebecca Diamond, Timothy McQuade, and Beatriz Pousada for “The Contribution of High-Skilled Immigrants to Innovation in the United States.”

Selected as Dhirubhai Ambani Faculty Scholar in Entrepreneurship, Stanford Graduate School of Business, 2015-2016.