School Notes: School of Management
November/December 2009

Professor wins international finance award

Robert J. Shiller, the Arthur M. Okun Professor of Economics, received the Deutsche Bank Prize in Financial Economics 2009, an international award honoring research in finance, monetary studies, and macroeconomics that has led to practice- and policy-relevant results. The prize, awarded to Shiller in September, comes with a €50,000 endowment, and specifically cited Shiller's work on irrational exuberance in capital and property markets. Shiller's empirical work on asset pricing and related macroeconomic risks is of great academic and practical value. As far back as 2000, at the height of new-economy euphoria, he foresaw the Internet market collapse. He also issued an early warning about the pending implosion of the property bubble in the U.S. and the severe financial crisis arising from this development.

Two alumnae named most powerful women in business

Indra Nooyi ’80MPPM, chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, is the top woman in world business, according to the inaugural ranking by the Financial Times. She was also named number one in Fortune's fourth Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Business list. And Nooyi joined Jane Mendillo ’80, ’84MBA, president and CEO of the Harvard Management Company, on Forbes's 100 Most Powerful Women ranking. Nooyi joined PepsiCo in 1994, where she directed global strategy and assumed the role as the company's head three years ago. Mendillo, who worked for the Harvard Management Company for 15 years before managing Wellesley College's endowment, returned to Harvard last July to direct the university's now $26 billion endowment. Both women are considered among the top executives in their respective fields.

Faculty research continues to draw attention

In a speech marking a year since the beginning of the financial crisis, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke drew on research by Gary B. Gorton, Frederick Frank Class of 1954 Professor of Management and Finance, and Andrew Metrick ’89BA, ’89MA, Theodore Nierenberg Professor of Corporate Governance and professor of finance. Bernanke referenced a paper the two professors collaborated on in his explanation of one panic scenario that arose among lenders in the short-term sale and repurchase agreement, or "repo," market. He also mentioned a paper on the crisis written solely by Gorton. Bernanke had previously referenced another paper by Gorton in an interview with the Washington Post. Learn more about the work of Gorton, Metrick, and other SOM faculty at mba.yale.edu/facultyinsights.