Research Interests
My research interests span FinTech and Decentralized Finance, Quantum Computing in Finance and Empirical Corporate Finance.
FinTech and Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
Publications
Utility Tokens, Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCAR), and the Costs of Being Public. In The Elgar Companion to Decentralized Finance, Digital Assets, and Blockchain Technologies. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 113–126, 2024. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781035307760.00011.
Experts or Charlatans? ICO Analysts and White Paper Informativeness, with Alexander Schandlbauer (University of Southern Denmark), Journal of Banking and Finance 139 (June), 106476, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2022.106476
Work in Progress
Votes You Can’t Buy: Dual-Class Governance and Idiosyncratic Risk in DAOs, with Johnnatan Messias (Max Planck Institute for Software Systems), Michal Minarcik (Aarhus University), and Amjad Naveed (Aarhus University), June 2025.
Crypto Expert Survey, April 2025.
Homepage: https://www.iu.de/forschung/projekte/krypto-expertenumfrage/
Keywords: Crypto experts, survey, expectation formation, crypto business climate index, crypto optimism index, crypto market expectation index.
Abstract: The Crypto Expert Survey is an innovative research project designed to establish a robust empirical foundation for academic research on expectation formation in the crypto sector. It was initiated to address the gap in data collection within this industry by introducing a regular survey of crypto experts from the DACH region. The survey builds on proven methods from well-known economic surveys such as the ZEW Financial Market Survey, CFO Survey (Duke University), or the Survey of Business Uncertainty (Atlanta Fed), adapting them to the specific features of the crypto industry. The resulting Crypto Business Climate Index, the Crypto Optimism Index, and Crypto Market Expectation Indices are publicly available, supporting decision-makers in business and politics.
Presentations
Crypto Expert Survey
University of Limassol, Online 2025.
The Information Content of ICO White Papers
32nd Australasian Finance and Banking Conference 2019, Sydney; Financial Management Association 2019, New Orleans; German Finance Association (DGF) 2019, Essen; European Financial Management Association (EFMA) 2019, Ponta Delgada; University of Munich (LMU) Workshop, 2019, Austria; Midwest Finance Association 2019, Chicago; University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee 2019; Second Toronto FinTech Conference 2019, Toronto.
Quantum Computing in Finance
Work in Progress
Quantum Computing and Financial Services Transformation, with Siddhartha Santra (Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay), April 2025.
Keywords: Quantum advantage, financial computing problems, financial services disruption, quantum business models.
Abstract: Emerging technologies such as quantum computing are difficult to value for early adopters, so we propose a structured approach that first develops a taxonomy of financial-services computing problems and then estimates quantum computing’s improvement potential across financial services areas. By asking whether a quantum solution is necessary, what its reward/cost profile is, and how deeply each area might be disrupted, we translate time-to-solution and solution-quality gains into dollar-denominated return-on-investment metrics for the next 5–10 years. This framework not only assesses the potential scale of disruption but also identifies innovation opportunities and new business models enabled by quantum computing.
Presentations
Quantum Computing and Financial Services Transformation
Indo-German Frontiers of Engineering Symposium (INDOGFOE), Mumbai 2024.
Empirical Corporate Finance
Publications
Dynamic Capital Structure Adjustment and the Impact of Fractional Dependent Variables, with Ralf Elsas (LMU Munich), Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis 50 (5), 1105–1133, 2015. doi.org/10.1017/S0022109015000496.
Stata codes for the DPF estimator and simulation scripts can be found here.
Heterogeneity in the Speed of Adjustment towards Target Leverage, with Ralf Elsas (LMU Munich), International Review of Finance 11 (2), 181–211, 2011. doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2443.2011.01130.x.
Empirical Capital Structure Research: New Ideas, Recent Evidence, and Methodological Issues, with Ralf Elsas (LMU Munich), Journal of Business Economics (Zeitschrift für Betriebswirtschaft), Special Issue 6, 39–71, 2008. ssrn.com/abstract=1634932.
Other
Capital Market Access and Cash Flow Allocation During the Financial Crisis, with Vidhan Goyal (HKUST Business School), February 2017. ssrn.com/abstract=2726048.
Semi-finalist FMA (2016) Best Paper Award (Financial Markets and Institutions).
Keywords: Stock market access, private firms, financial constraints, short-termist pressures, cash flow allocation, financial crisis, bank-based vs. market-based financial markets.
Abstract: To understand how a stock market listing influences corporate policies if external financing is restricted, we examine how European public and counterfactual private firms jointly adjust their investment, financing, payout policies during the global financial crisis – when bank lending tightened. Our findings suggest that a stock market listing provides better access to external debt financing during the crisis as public firms, on average, net issue more long-term debt. Excess debt financing is, however, not allocated to investments but mostly to payouts to shareholders. Thus, a stock market listing relaxes financial constraints but induces managers to cater to shareholders during the crisis. Independent of a country’s financial market structure (bank-based vs. market based) in our European firm sample, a stock market listing always provides a firm with more long-term debt during the crisis. In bank-based economies, this excess debt is mostly allocated to maintain investments while in market-based economies, inducing higher short-termist pressures, a stock-listing leads to lower investments and excess debt is used to maintain payouts.
Managerial Optimism and the Perception of Financial Constraints, with Tobias Heizer (LMU Munich), September 2015. Download: Available upon request.
Keywords: Managerial optimism, perceived financing constraints, distinguishing behavioral and rational predictions, matched survey and financial statement data.
Abstract: We find that optimistic managers are more likely to perceive financing constraints, which is a fundamental but previously untested prediction of behavioral corporate finance theory. However, this effect is statistically significant but relatively small compared to other previously identified determinants of perceived financing constraints. Moreover, the vast majority of optimistic managers actually do not perceive any financing constraints. Our findings have implications for both behavioral corporate finance and financial constraints research. We argue that previous findings relating optimism and corporate policies are probably driven by perceived financing constraints and not optimism. Apart from their potential usefulness, commonly applied financial constraint indices are likely to be biased by not accounting for managerial optimism. Our analysis is based on large survey panel data for high-level managers of 2,897 German firms for the period 1995 to 2010, which is matched with financial and non-financial firm-level information. The data enable us to implement a survey based measure of managerial optimism and to directly access the managers’ perception of financing constraints from survey answers.
An Autopsy of a Total Stock Market Failure, with Ioannis Floros (Wisconsin-Milwaukee) and Shane Johnson (Texas A&M), March 2018. Download: Available upon request.
Abstract: We study a unique case in which a stock market experienced an Akerlof-type failure. We find that a relatively small fraction of ‘bad’ firms combined with high levels of asymmetric information led to a series of Akerlof-type spillovers onto good firms evident in increased trading costs and reduced liquidity and volume. As good firms suffered adverse pricing effects, they exited the market, leading to increases in the fraction of bad firms and further deterioration in the market. Regulators intervened attempting to rescue the market, but the problems accelerated; regulators ultimately shut down the market. Our work sheds light on how stock markets with low transparency and low listing requirements can fail with even just a small fraction of bad firms.
Unionization, Spill-Over Effects, and Corporate Policies, with Nikolas Breitkopf (Aalto) and Harm Schütt (Tilburg), June 2017.
Real Regulatory Spill-Over, Catharina Klepsch (LMU Munich) and Daniel Rettl (University of Georgia), June 2017.
Peer Effects and the IPO Decision, with Daniel Rettl (University of Georgia), March 2016.
Leverage and Credit Ratings Revisited: Evidence from High-Dimensional Estimation, with Martin Spindler (University of Hamburg), November 2015.
Presentations
An Autopsy of a Total Stock Market Failure
German Finance Association (DGF) 2018, Trier; French Finance Association (AFFI) 2018, Paris; WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management, Vallendar, 2018; University of Salzburg 2017, Austria; HKUST Business School 2017, Hong Kong.
Managerial Optimism and the Perception of Financial Constraints
Eastern Finance Association 2019, Miami; Financial Management Association 2018, San Diego; Behavioral Finance Working Group Conference at Queen Mary University 2018, London; French Finance Association (AFFI) 2018, Paris; Midwest Finance Association 2018, San Antonio; Asian Finance Association 2017, Seoul; German Academic Association for Business Research (VHB) 2016, Munich; Munich Finance Day 2016, Munich.
Capital Market Access and Cash Flow Allocation During the Financial Crisis
International Association for Applied Econometrics (IAAE) 2018, Montreal; Swiss Society for Financial Market Research (SGF) 2018, Zurich; Midwest Finance Association 2018, San Antonio; University of Hong Kong 2017, Hong Kong; ESCP Paris 2017, France; University of Southern Denmark 2017, Denmark; Financial Management Association 2016, Las Vegas; European Financial Management Association (EFMA) 2016, Basel; Munich Finance Day 2016, Munich; Rotterdam School of Management 2014, Rotterdam; Kühne Logistics University 2014, Hamburg; UCLA Anderson School of Management 2014, Los Angeles.
Dynamic Capital Structure Adjustment and the Impact of Fractional Dependent Variables
Financial Management Association 2011, Denver; Campus for Finance Research Conference 2011, Vallendar; Eastern Finance Association 2010, Miami Beach; Swiss Society for Financial Market Research (SGF) 2010, Zurich; Midwest Finance Association 2010, Las Vegas; Finance PhDWorkshop 2009, HKUST Business School, Hong Kong.
Heterogeneity in the Speed of Adjustment towards Target Leverage
Swiss Society for Financial Market Research (SGF) 2011, Zurich; Midwest Finance Association 2011, Chicago; Munich Finance Day 2011, Munich.
Grants and Awards
Scientific Network “Textual Analysis in Economics and Finance”, DFG
Principal Investigator, € 24,188, 2016–2017.
German Science Foundation (DFG) grant for conducting three workshops for network members and guest speakers (11 members from LMU Munich, Mannheim, HU Berlin, UT Austin, University of Hamburg, Georgia Tech, and Aalto University), https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/286229948.
Research Collaboration Grant, BayCHINA
Principal Investigator, € 7,808, 2014–2016.
Travel funding for research collaboration from Bayerisches Hochschulzentrum für China for project “Capital Market Access and Cash Flow Allocation”.
Research Scholarship, DFG
German Science Foundation (DFG) scholarship for conducting research at UCLA Anderson School of Management, project “Leverage Adjustments: Evidence from European Private Firms”. 03/2013—02/2014 (12 months), https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/232654594.
Doctoral Dissertation Prize, LMU Management Alumni, 2011.
Travel Grants, DAAD and LMU Management Alumni, 2010–2016.
Professional Service
Referee
Management Science
Journal of Corporate Finance
Journal of Banking and Finance
Journal of Empirical Finance
Journal of Financial Econometrics
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
Research Grants Council (RGC) Hong Kong
European Journal of Finance
Journal of Commodity Markets
Empirical Economics
Journal of Business Economics (Zeitschrift für Betriebswirtschaft)