Publications

Theater shows routinely turn over actors in lead roles. Otherwise, the show stays the same, including the director, the script, other actors and, the physical theater environment. Even the lines performed do not change the set. Therefore, the theater provides a unique laboratory for assessing the value of human capital to an enterprise, a question that has been studied in other contexts, including the CEO value literature. We compare revenues, capacity, and ticket prices just before and just after transitions of top cast members. We also characterize the performers in various ways and control for the attributes of the show and for team characteristics. We find that decorated theater stars significantly affect the financial success of theater shows, supporting the MacDonald version of the superstar hypothesis. Movie stars and celebrities do not seem to affect ticket prices or show revenues. Teams and seasonal effects seem to matter as well.

Sustainable investing is a rapidly growing and evolving field. With investors expressing ever greater interest in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics and reporting, companies face a sustainability imperative and the need to remake their business models to respond to an array of pressing issues including climate change, air and water pollution, racial justice, workplace diversity, economic inequality, privacy, corporate integrity, and good governance. From equities to fixed income and from private equity to impact-investing, investors of all kinds now want to understand which companies will be marketplace leaders in a business future redefined by sustainability. Thus, investment strategies, risk models, financial vehicles, applications, data, metrics, standards, and regulations are all changing rapidly around the world.