Lasse Heje Pedersen

John A. Paulson Professor of Finance and Alternative Investments

 

 


New book!

BIO:

Lasse Heje Pedersen is the John A. Paulson Professor of Finance and Alternative Investments at the NYU Stern School of Business, a research associate at CEPR and NBER, a principal at AQR Capital Management, and a Director of the American Finance Association. Lasse has served in the Liquidity Working Group meeting at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to address liquidity issues, the New York Fed’s Monetary Policy Panel, the Economic Advisory Boards of NASDAQ and FTSE, and on the editorial boards of the Journal of Finance, Journal of Economic Theory, The Review of Asset Pricing Studies, and Quarterly Journal of Economics. His academic awards include the Bernácer Prize to the Best E.U. Economist Under 40 Years of Age, the Fama-DFA Prize, and the Michael Brennan Award. Lasse received his B.S. and M.S. from University of Copenhagen and his Ph.D. from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

RESEARCH SUMMARY:

My research focuses on asset pricing and liquidity risk. It shows that a security’s required return is increased by market liquidity risk (as captured by the liquidity-adjusted capital asset pricing model) and funding liquidity risk (as captured by the margin CAPM), and how the interaction of market and funding liquidity can create liquidity spirals and systemic financial crisis. Indeed, when everyone runs for the exit, prices drop-and-rebound, margins increase, and risk management tighten.

These liquidity risk models can help explain equity returns, option prices, bond yields, currency crashes, valuation in OTC search markets, the CDS-bond basis and other failures of the Law of One Price, the effect of unconventional monetary policy such as central banks’ lending facilities, low-beta returns, predatory trading, shortselling, optimal dynamic trading, and other benefits of a realistic departure from classic frictionless finance theory

In addition to liquidity risk, the other "big" factors that drive returns across markets and asset classes include market risk, betting against beta, carry, value, momentum, and time series momentum.

NEWS:

Feb-13

 

See data page with global risk factors across markets and asset classes and more

Nov-12

 

Winner of Nykredit Research Prize

Oct-12

 

Elected to the Academia Europaea (the Academy of Europe)

June-12

 

Winner of the Michael Brennan Award for the Best Paper in the Review of Financial Studies. Read this

May-12

 

Awarded the Bernácer Prize to the Best E.U. Economist Under 40 Years of Age.
Official press release. Speech by ECB Vice-President Constancio. Photo. Video clip. P&I. DR. JP. BT. DJF.

Apr-12

 

Winner of the SFI Outstanding Paper Award for the paper “Betting Against Beta”

Apr-12

 

Cited by Chairman Ben Benanke in a speech about liquidity spirals during the crisis

Nov-11

 

I was asked to give a talk with Tips on How to Succeed in Academia for ph.d. students and junior faculty

Aug-11

 

Norwegian press on liquidity crises and 13 experts' advice

Dec-10

 

Elected as Director of the American Finance Association

Oct-27-10

 

Frictional Finance (fricofinance): A presentation to Harvard students on how financial frictions affect asset prices, macro, monetary, and your life (ppt)

Oct-11-10

 

The Nobel Prize Committee’s Scientific Background references Duffie, Garleanu, and Pedersen (2005) in connection with the award for markets with search frictions to Diamond, Mortensen, and Pissarides.

Feb-11-10

 

The Economist writes about my research on liquidity risk and the rush the exit in financial markets

Dec-29-09

 

Barron’s writes about the “liquidity movement” (local link)

Nov-4-09

 

Theory of liquidity spirals mentioned in Wall Street Journal online

Sep-29-09

 

 

OpEd: Saving free markets from market failure: institutions and liquidity are crucial in Forbes. Chinese version, Sina: 佩德森:避免自由市场失灵

Sep-18-09

 

David Levine mentions my research on liquidity risk in The Huffington Post

Sep-09-09

 

My paper When Everyone Runs for the Exit is discussed by Tom Cooley in Forbes

Aug-08-09

 

New York Times writes about my paper on the crisis, the quant event, and what happens When Everyone Runs for the Exit

Jul-21-09

 

Marketwatch features the paper Value and Momentum Everywhere 

May-28-09

 

Forbes features my paper on Carry Trades and Currency Crashes

Apr-14-09

 

NASDAQ stock market closing bell on Times Square

Jan-30-09

 

OpEd: A proposal to prevent wholesale financial failure in Financial Times with Nouriel Roubini

Dec-29-08

 

New York Times writes about my research on liquidity risk

Oct-20-08

 

Talks at IMF and Federal Reserve Board on the liquidity crisis - slides here

Oct-15-08

 

Blog entry on the current crisis at Stern on Finance and VoxEU

Oct-13-08

 

Appointed to the NASDAQ OMX Economic Advisory Board

Oct-9-08

 

Quoted in the American Banker (comment on equity participation turned out true the next day)

Sep-13-08

 

New York Times writes about my new paper on Value and Momentum Everywhere 

Apr-08

 

IMF's Global Financial Stability Report uses my papers on risk management and funding liquidity

Aug-30-07

 

The Economist writes about my paper on Market Liquidity and Funding Liquidity

Misc.

 

Media mention in Germany, Norway, and my home country Denmark including various TV and radio

 

 

When the river runs dry: The perils of a sudden evaporation of liquidity

The Economist

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

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