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Email: baron@cornell.edu
401J Sage Hall
Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853-6201
Phone: 607-255-8686

Matthew Baron’s primary research focus is on banking crises. These periods of extreme stress in banking systems, which often involve widespread bank failures and depositor runs, are a recurring phenomenon throughout economic history. The overarching goal of his work is to uncover the fundamental sources of financial fragility, understand the mechanisms through which distress in the financial sector affects the macroeconomy, and guide policy development to prevent future banking crises. Baron is working on several new research projects related to: 1) the role of investor beliefs in driving banking crises, 2) the interplay between bank insolvency and illiquidity in driving crisis dynamics, 3) the dynamics of bank equity capitalization around crises, 4) the role of implicit creditor guarantees, 5) the reorganization of the banking sector during banking crises, and 6) the long shadow of bank distress in the aftermath of crises. More about his work on historical financial crises can be found at the website of the Quantitative Financial History Lab at Cornell University.

Baron’s published work has appeared in academic journals such as the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Journal of Financial Economics, and the Review of Financial Studies. His research has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and other media outlets. His research is funded by grants from the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET), Governor’s Woods Foundation, Cornell Center for Social Sciences, and Einaudi Center for International Studies. He has served as a visiting researcher at the Federal Reserve Board, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Baron teaches Investment and Portfolio Management and Behavioral Finance at the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, along with co-teaching sections for the Cornell-Tsinghua Finance MBA program and PhD in Management program. He has advised a variety of PhD students, postdoctoral fellows, and research assistants, who have subsequently attained positions at top-ranked academic institutions and central banks around the world.

Baron holds a PhD in economics from Princeton University and a BS in mathematics from Yale University.

Curriculum Vitae (CV)

  • Click here to view my curriculum vitae (PDF document).

Peer-reviewed Publications

Working Papers__

Book Chapters

Current Projects

  • Matthew Baron, Zhou Fan, and Jamil Rahman. “Trading the Credit Cycles”_

Links

Teaching

  • I currently teach two MBA classes at Cornell, NBA 5420: Investment and Portfolio Management and NBA 5980: Behavioral Finance. Click here to go to my teaching page.