PhD Candidate in Finance,
London Business School
Job market candidate, 2025–26 |
CV |
E-mail
Across projects, I study how ethical preferences, ideological alignment, and institutional instability shape capital allocation, asset pricing and real outcomes.
My theoretical work develops equilibrium solution concepts for strategic environments where investors reason in non-standard ways. My empirical work examines intermediary rent extraction in the pass-through of social preferences to asset prices, the role of normatively-motivated coordination in externality mitigation, and how taste and belief heterogeneity influence investment behavior.
My research speaks to the economics of regime legitimacy, ethical finance, and investor influence in shaping the social contract. I am supervised by Anna Pavlova, Professor of Finance at London Business School.
Ethical Capital, Coordination, and the Correction of Externalities
Abstract: This paper builds a general equilibrium model of ethical investing and coordinated externality mitigation. Ethical behavior often departs from Nash rationality by relying on normative principles rather than belief-based best responses. I introduce the \textit{Kant equilibrium} as a complement to Nash, and show that reasoning heterogeneity and coordination technology, rather than preferences alone, select unique coordination equilibria, explain minority catalysis in activism and predict when one-share-one-vote regimes aid or impede externality correction. I test model predictions on a global panel of mutual funds and ETFs, using textual analysis of filings to identify ethical mandates. Using the staggered rollout of the \textit{Climate Action 100+} initiative as a positive coordination shock, I find that engagement-oriented funds increase ownership in targeted high-externality firms relative to other firms and non-engagement funds. Dynamic estimates from a stacked event study confirm that reallocations are persistent. Using 2SLS, I show that ethical capital causally improves firm-level externality outcomes through coordinated engagement channels.
Do Investors Overvalue Startups? Evidence from the Junior Stakes of
Mutual Funds
with Vikas Agarwal, Brad Barber, Si Cheng, Allaudeen Hameed, and Ayako
Yasuda
Abstract: Mutual funds overvalue their junior stakes in startups by 53% compared to fair value models accounting for multi-tier capital structures. Junior securities are marked close to senior securities, despite the latter being worth 58% more. Funds overpay in secondaries, and valuations are not justified by exit outcomes. Overvaluation persists over time and across VC cycles, but declines after down rounds. The findings suggest underestimation of downside risk and overweighting of IPO scenarios.
Non-Economic Preferences and Financial Market Equilibrium
Abstract: This paper develops an intermediated asset-pricing framework in which investors derive utility from non-financial asset attributes—such as environmental responsibility—but access markets through profit-maximizing funds. A change in investor tastes transmits through three channels: an asset-price effect, an intermediary-rent effect, and a real-allocation effect. Closed-form equilibrium expressions link these channels to elasticities of fund demand with respect to fees and attribute exposure. Using mutual fund data from Morningstar Direct merged with ESG and preference measures, I estimate these elasticities and quantify incidence. Structural estimates indicate substantial absorption of household willingness-to-pay by intermediaries, and limited pass-through of social preferences to asset prices.
Capital under Dissonance: Ideology, Instability, and Asset Prices [Working Title]
Abstract: This paper investigates how regime uncertainty, ideological shifts, and belief-driven expectations affect investment behavior and asset prices. Transitions between political regimes distort market signals and alter risk premia. The model endogenizes asset returns, participation, and long-run wealth accumulation under dynamic regime-switching beliefs. [Work in progress]
Outside research, I write about London theatre at TheatreBee, tutor students in the sciences, economics and mathematics, and delight in curious dataset compilations such as Data is Plural.
Last updated: July 2025