Pablo Slutzky, PhD student in Finance and Economics at Columbia Business School, received the 2016 Blackrock Applied Research Award which recognizes the top job market paper submitted by PhD candidates on a practical topic pertaining to financial markets, economics, investment management or risk management.
“To me, the award is not only a recognition of my work, but also a recognition of the work of all those that helped me over this last five years, and to whom I will always be grateful: my advisors, Professors, classmates, and staff members at Columbia Business School” said Slutzky.
Slutzky’s paper entitled “Doing Business in Emerging Markets: The Benefits of Being Private” studies how firms deal with business-unfriendly regulations that limit their operations. The results of his research uncover an additional cost faced by listed companies, identify a new driver of M&A transactions in emerging markets, and show evidence that high levels of regulation lead to opaque corporate structures.
Finalists were selected by BlackRock’s Applied Research Award Committee which consisted of a panel of finance leaders from BlackRock and academia. The submitted papers were assessed on several criteria, including the demonstration of thought leadership, a focus on a practical problem of relevance, the use of advanced quantitative techniques, the analysis of an interesting new data set and the offering of a practical solution. Each finalist then met with a jury panel to defend their job market paper at BlackRock’s New York office where Slutzky was announced the winner.