Eric Nowak

Eric Nowak is Professor of Finance and Head of the Institute of Finance at the Università della Svizzera italiana. Throughout his career, Professor Nowak has held visiting appointments at leading universities worldwide, including Stanford, the University of Chicago, and NUS Singapore. He is founding director of the pioneering MSc in FinTech program at the Università.

Expertise

Professor Nowak is reviewing market efficiency and limits to arbitrage during the Volkswagen short squeeze of 2008. Back then, when Porsche announced its domination plan, the price of Volkswagen shares skyrocketed and the firm briefly became the most valuable company in the world. He finds that lax disclosure requirements, low shareholder protection, and weak enforcement of securities laws in Germany are the main factors that explain the short squeeze. To ensure that capital markets in Europe function well and are efficient, he recommends that the European Securities and Markets Authority be responsible for the implementation and enforcement of regulation to prevent short squeezes and other forms of price manipulation.

Expertise Fields

Financial Markets

• Financial Crises
• Information and Market Efficiency

Portfolio Management and Asset Classes

• Behavioral Finance
• Equities
• Personal Finance and Household Choices

Financial Institutions

• Institutional Investors and Funds
• Venture Capital and Private Equity

Corporate Finance and Governance

• Bankruptcy and Liquidation
• Corporate Governance and Managerial Compensation
• Financial Valuation
• Mergers and Acquisitions

Frontier Topics

• Big Data and Fintech
• Sustainable Finance