Faculty News

In an op-ed, Professor Michael Spence predicts what increased interest rates in the US will mean for emerging markets

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Excerpt from Project Syndicate -- "The reality is that emerging markets that benefited after the 2008 crisis from China’s economic growth, rising commodity prices, and cheap foreign capital must now adjust to reversals in all of these factors. The necessary transitions for these markets will be complex, risky, and not entirely within their control."
Faculty News

Professor Kim Schoenholtz reflects on the current stock market rally

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Excerpt from Bloomberg -- "'Our sample size for this is pretty small,' said Kim Schoenholtz, professor of management practice and director of the center for global economy and business at New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business. 'Saying that a valuation cycle and asset prices are time-driven would almost imply they have a regularity to them, which we know isn’t true.'"
Faculty News

Professor Vishal Singh discusses his research on a potential "fat tax" to help combat obesity

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Excerpt from Medical Xpress -- "'The general perception is that these taxes need to be substantial, at least 20% and often as high as 50%, to have a meaningful impact. This would be highly regressive since low-income consumers spend a greater proportion of their disposable income on food. Here, we have compelling field-based evidence that such taxes don't need to be high to be effective,' noted Singh."
Faculty News

Professor Arun Sundararajan discusses his research about wages in the sharing economy

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Excerpt from AFP -- "Sundararajan says his research suggests people in digital labour markets often earn more than in traditional jobs. 'The evidence I have seen is that wages tend to go up when the work is related to physical presence,' as is the case with transportation, delivery or home services, he told AFP. With services that can be outsourced to distant locations, such as web design or translation, wages often fell."
Faculty News

Professors Roy Smith and Michael Pinedo comment on rogue trader-turned-adviser Nick Leeson and the launch of the Risk Team consulting service

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Excerpt from GARP -- "'Nick Leeson is unlikely to convince serious professionals that he can add much to what they know. He is 20 years out-of-date,' says Roy Smith, professor of management practices at the Leonard N. Stern School of Business, New York University. 'What he did back then would never go undetected today,' Smith notes. ... Michael Pinedo, who teaches operational risk at NYU’s Stern School, says that Leeson 'put operational risk on the map,' and his celebrity helps to bring attention to an important subject. But there are limits to what he can impart to today’s executives 'because so many of the procedures have changed.'"
Faculty News

Professor Aswath Damodaran explains how worker unions will impact Uber and Lyft

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Excerpt from International Business Times -- "Aswath Damodaran is a professor at the Stern School of Business at New York University who focuses on corporate finance and valuation. He says unions will affect the cost structures of Uber and Lyft 'by making the independent contractor model that they are wedded to even less defensible than it is.' He also says they are likely to shake up the current revenue-sharing balance: The companies take in roughly 20 percent commission on each fare."
Faculty News

Professor David Yermack highlights the growing importance of blockchain technology

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Excerpt from BusinessBecause -- "Both NYU Stern and Duke Fuqua business schools have brought bitcoin programs to their MBA students. ... 'Many of the major banks may use blockchain technology to create internal systems for transferring money across borders or between banks,' said David Yermack, professor of finance at NYU Stern."
Faculty News

Research by Sarah Labowitz and Dorothée Baumann-Pauly of Stern's Center for Business and Human Rights on worker safety in Bangladesh is featured

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Excerpt from Quartz -- "Fixing these problems is an enormously complex undertaking, but it’s a necessary one. Bangladesh’s garment industry has helped millions to escape poverty, and it’s not for the best if brands pull out of the country. The best solution, Labowitz and Baumann-Pauly write, is 'shared responsibility,' in which all parties acknowledge the scope of the problem, allow space for honest discussion, and act together to fix it."
Faculty News

Professor Irving Schenkler comments on the impact of the E. Coli outbreak at Chipotle on its brand

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Excerpt from BuzzFeed -- "'There’s no doubt that the problems affect their "brand promise" of being more than fast food,' said Irv Schenkler, professor of management communication at NYU Stern."
Faculty News

Research Scholar Sarah Labowitz highlights the Center of Business and Human Rights' new research on worker safety in Bangladesh

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Excerpt from The Atlantic -- "In the wake of Rana Plaza, factory safety programs meant to improve fire and building protocols were agreed upon by politicians and several major brands such as Costco, Walmart, and Macy’s. But according to the NYU report, these agreements only cover 27 percent of factories and 45 percent of laborers who work for some of the largest and most advanced factories in the country. And for the most part, even the factories that fall under the purview of these programs haven’t completed the reforms necessary to make them safe. The holdup, the study finds, is a battle over who should pay for expensive electrical and structural upgrades—the factories or the brands that buy from them."
Faculty News

In a co-authored op-ed, Professor Jeanne Calderon and Scholar-in-Residence Gary Friedland illustrate the impact of the one-year extension of the EB-5 Regional Center Program

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Excerpt from Commercial Observer -- "Under the extension, the existing rules continue. However, in the interim, lawmakers are contemplating a bill which would address the integrity and other noncontroversial portions of the reforms that were on the table. Whether or not this bill gains traction, the EB-5 negotiation process must resume as early as possible in early 2016 given that the extension will expire in only nine months and passing any major legislation in a presidential election year will pose a major challenge."
Faculty News

Professor Scott Galloway shares his views on the future of social media for ecommerce

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Excerpt from the Financial Times -- "Scott Galloway, founder of research firm L2 and professor of marketing at New York University’s Stern Business School, expects [social shopping] will continue to underwhelm because social networks are for social activities, not shopping. 'Social still plays a huge role in retail or a brands’ business, but it’s just not where the actual retailing gets done,' Mr Galloway says."
Faculty News

Professor Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh is interviewed about Norway's sovereign-wealth fund

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Excerpt from Dagens Næringsliv -- "New requirements for renewable energy will require massive investment. States and development banks have limited capacity. Much of the money must therefore come from the private sector, says Van Nieuwerburgh."
Press Releases

Thousands of Unregulated Bangladeshi Factories Are Putting Nearly Three Million Workers, International Brands at Risk

Sarah Labowitz
There are more than 7,000 garment factories in Bangladesh producing for the global fashion industry, 65% more than previous estimates. More than half of these factories are small and medium-sized indirect sourcing factories, meaning their workers produce for foreign brands through other, larger factories. These factories operate in the shadows. The result is that millions of workers in subcontracting factories fall outside the protection of international safety-improvement initiatives, and are especially vulnerable in a country where unsafe working conditions are a chronic problem. While global brands, governments in North America and Europe, and international lenders have announced commitments of more than US$280 million for the garment sector in Bangladesh, to date, only a handful of factories have been fixed.
Faculty News

Professor Joseph Foudy outlines the appeal of US real estate for Chinese investors

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Excerpt from Commercial Observer -- "'The U.S. real estate investment is a rainy-day fund and hedge against both risks about the Chinese market slowdown but also uncertainty about fears of being swept up in the anti-corruption campaign,' said Joseph Foudy, an economics professor at New York University. 'Keeping a percentage of their net worth outside the country and safe is more important than a particular financial return on their real estate investment.'"
Faculty News

Professor Thomas Cooley demonstrates how increased interest rates might impact small businesses

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Excerpt from Inc. -- "And small businesses could feel the pain more acutely if interest rates go up too rapidly, says Thomas Cooley, professor of economics and former dean of the New York University Stern School of Business. 'A lot of new jobs are generated by small and mid-sized businesses, and if the interest rate increases dramatically, it could slow investment to this sector,' Cooley says, adding that the increase in interest rates is also likely to further strengthen the dollar. That in turn could hurt exports."
Faculty News

Professor William Greene comments on the new music royalty rates for Internet radio companies

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Excerpt from WIRED -- "The Copyright Royalty Board is supposed to set fair rates that reflect songs’ hypothetical market value if a truly open marketplace existed. 'The numbers they have chosen in the past have been wildly controversial, but in a world of zero marginal costs, it is difficult to set rates that make obvious sense,' says William Greene, a New York University professor, who researches the economics of the entertainment and media industry. 'The CRB is casting about for a set of numbers that cause as little disruption as possible.'"
School News

PhD candidate Katherine Waldock shares her in-depth economic predictions for 2016

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Excerpt from WalletHub -- "While I think that there are reasons to be optimistic about technological innovation that will drive growth in the U.S., these gains will be modest for the time being. As for underlying problems, although there are a couple areas of disquietude, they do not seem large enough to trigger a downturn in the near future. External factors are a significant source of uncertainty for the U.S. in the coming year, the greatest of which is the risk of a bigger slowdown in the Chinese economy. While I think the chances of this are high and that it would have a significant impact on the U.S., that impact would contain offsetting features."
Faculty News

Professor Aswath Damodaran explains why operating in the New York City market is important for Lyft's business

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Excerpt from Reuters -- "'It is a market that is a regulatory thicket designed to protect the taxicab business,' said Aswath Damodaran, professor of finance at New York University's Stern School of Business."
Faculty News

Professor Pankaj Ghemawat's research on globalization is spotlighted

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Excerpt from Diario Del Puerto -- "... the Indian economist Pankaj Ghemawat, a professor at the Stern School of Business at New York University and at the IESE Business School in Barcelona, ​​has provided information that would show that only 2% of all phone calls in the world are international; only 9% of investments are global; only 15% of all Facebook friends are foreigners; less than 20% of data traffic on the Internet is between different countries and exports account for only 20% of world GDP. ... According Ghemawat, the pace of globalization is not as fast and the overall level of global connectivity has not yet returned to its historical high of 2007."
Faculty News

Professor Aswath Damodaran explains why he believes commodity price forecasting is not useful

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Excerpt from Bloomberg -- "I think part of the reason we use forecasts [is that] it makes us feel better. I think that's basically it. It's like comfort food. You know it doesn't work, but you still listen to it. It's great storytelling."
Faculty News

Professor Nouriel Roubini believes a Federal Reserve rate hike would bring economic risk

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Excerpt from Bloomberg -- "One of the dilemmas that the Fed is facing right now is that there is a bit of an asymmetry. Suppose that they move too fast, too soon. Then the economy could be stalling, maybe because of external shock... and then going back to conventional monetary policy is a mistake. Suppose they were a bit more cautious and you start later and more slowly. If the economy is too strong and inflation picks up, you ... can tighten a little bit faster. So this asymmetry between the risk of moving too soon or too late suggests that, actually, you want to be cautious."
Faculty News

Professor Lawrence White explains the Federal Reserve's role in the 2016 presidential election

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Excerpt from TheStreet.com -- "For GOP candidates, the Fed will likely be more important as a talking point than anything else. History has shown that while Republicans may like to talk a big game on Fed oversight, they haven't been overly eager to act in the Oval Office. Under Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, 'I don't think we see a lot of big change with respect to the Federal Reserve,' said White."
Faculty News

Professor Nouriel Roubini argues that the Federal Reserve should not raise interest rates

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Excerpt from Bloomberg -- "'Suppose that you are a bit more cautious and you start moving slowly and the economy becomes too strong and inflation picks up, you’ll be behind the curve but still you can tighten a bit faster,' he said in an interview in Dubai. The dilemma facing the Fed is that 'labor market data suggest it’s time to start hiking, but there is no sign of inflation in the economy,' Roubini said."
Faculty News

Professor Richard Sylla highlights the benefits of low interest rates for the economy

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Excerpt from The New York Times -- "'If we keep inflation under control, maybe we’ll enter a period like the ’50s,' said Richard Sylla, a financial historian at New York University and co-author of 'A History of Interest Rates.' 'Those were normal rates, and they were accompanied by a slight amount of inflation, 1 or 2 percent. That worried people then, where now it’s a target to be reached.'"

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