Finance
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- 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 KrishnaThis 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 KrishnaThis 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,...
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- June 2025
- Case
TfL Pension Fund and the 2022 Gilt Market Crisis
By: Emil N. Siriwardane, Vincent Dessain, Emer Moloney and Carlota MonizOn September 27, 2022, Padmesh Shukla, CIO of the Transport for London (TfL) Pension Fund, was keeping a careful eye on the turmoil in the U.K. sovereign bond (or gilt) market. When the new government announced the largest tax cuts the U.K. had seen in half a century, gilts saw an historic sell-off. Gilt yields soared and many pension funds faced urgent margin calls on their leveraged liability-driven investment (LDI) strategies to maintain collateral. As he watched the crisis unfold, he wondered if it was a reflection of structural flaws in the market or the result of simply short-term panic? While the TfL Pension Fund had a smaller LDI book than its peers, Shukla watched the crisis unfold with interest. Should the TfL Pension Fund act quickly to buy cheap gilts while the window was open, or was it time to rethink the fund’s approach to hedging and risk?
- June 2025
- Case
TfL Pension Fund and the 2022 Gilt Market Crisis
By: Emil N. Siriwardane, Vincent Dessain, Emer Moloney and Carlota MonizOn September 27, 2022, Padmesh Shukla, CIO of the Transport for London (TfL) Pension Fund, was keeping a careful eye on the turmoil in the U.K. sovereign bond (or gilt) market. When the new government announced the largest tax cuts the U.K. had seen in half a century, gilts saw an historic sell-off. Gilt yields soared and many pension funds faced...
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- 2025
- Working Paper
Fiscal Externalities of Transaction Taxes: Evidence from the Los Angeles Mansion Tax
By: Daniel Green, Vikram Jambulapati, Jack Liebersohn and Tejaswi VelayudhanWe estimate the fiscal externalities of a property transfer tax, the Los Angeles “Mansion Tax”, on the revenues from property taxes when assessed values are closely tied to transactions. In California, as in over half of U.S. states, growth in tax as- sessments between transactions lags market values, so any reduction in transaction frequency reduces the growth of property tax revenue. The fiscal externality is sizable: the resulting property tax revenue loss conservatively offsets at least two-thirds of the revenue generated by the transfer tax. The net revenue loss is larger for high-value and commercial properties.
- 2025
- Working Paper
Fiscal Externalities of Transaction Taxes: Evidence from the Los Angeles Mansion Tax
By: Daniel Green, Vikram Jambulapati, Jack Liebersohn and Tejaswi VelayudhanWe estimate the fiscal externalities of a property transfer tax, the Los Angeles “Mansion Tax”, on the revenues from property taxes when assessed values are closely tied to transactions. In California, as in over half of U.S. states, growth in tax as- sessments between transactions lags market values, so any reduction in transaction frequency...
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
- September 2025 |
- Article |
- Journal of Development Economics
TfL Pension Fund and the 2022 Gilt Market Crisis
- June 2025 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
Vail Resorts: Responding to Activist Pressure (B)
- June 2025 |
- Supplement |
- Faculty Research
Vail Resorts: Responding to Activist Pressure (A)
- June 2025 |
- Supplement |
- Faculty Research
Fiscal Externalities of Transaction Taxes: Evidence from the Los Angeles Mansion Tax
- 2025 |
- Working Paper |
- Faculty Research
Vail Resorts: Responding to Activist Pressure (A)
- June 2025 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
Social Security and Trends in Wealth Inequality
- June 2025 |
- Article |
- Journal of Finance
Index Rebalancing and Stock Market Composition: Do Indexes Time the Market?
- Working Paper |
- Faculty Research
Harvard Business Publishing
Seminars & Conferences
There are no upcoming events.