Leonard Kostovetsky

Professor Kostovetsky is an Associate Professor of Finance at the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College since 2022. His main research interests lie in the area of financial economics. He is a co-author of the widely covered 2018 cryptocurrency report, “Digital Tulips? Returns to Investors in Initial Coin Offerings” (ICOs), which examined the use of ICOs as fund-raising tool for new ventures. He also focuses on the fast-growing industry of socially responsible investing, and how political beliefs and connections affect the decisions of financial investors and corporate managers. Prior to coming to Baruch, he was an Assistant Professor at Boston College (in Chestnut Hill, MA) and the University of Rochester (in Rochester, NY). His research has been published in top finance journals including the Journal of Finance, the Review of Financial Studies, and the Journal of Financial Economics. For more about Prof. Kostovetsky’s research click here.

Academic Degrees

• PhD, Economics, Princeton University, 2008
• MA, Economics, Princeton University, 2005
• AB, Economics, Princeton University, 2003

Areas of Expertise

Investment Management, Passive Investing, Politics and Finance, Financial Innovation, ESG, Cryptocurrencies

Publications

• “Digital Tulips? Returns to Investors in Initial Coin Offerings” (with Hugo Benedetti), Journal of Corporate Finance, Vol. 66 (7), November 2020

• “Measuring Innovation and Product Differentiation: Evidence from Mutual Funds” (with Jerry Warner), Journal of Finance, Vol. 75 (2), April 2020

• “Investor Heterogeneity and Trading” (with Anzhela Knyazeva and Diana Knyazeva), European Financial Management special issue, Vol. 24 (4), September 2018

• “Brain Drain: Are Mutual Funds Losing Their Best Minds?” Quarterly Journal of Finance, Vol. 7 (3), September 2017

• “Whom do you trust? Investor-advisor relationships and mutual fund flows,” Review of Financial Studies, Vol. 29 (4), April 2016

• “You’re Fired: New Evidence on Portfolio Manager Turnover” (with Jerry Warner), Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Vol. 50 (4), August 2015

• “Political Capital and Moral Hazard,” Journal of Financial Economics, Vol. 116 (1), April 2015

• “Are Red or Blue Companies More Likely to Go Green? Politics and Corporate Social Responsibility,” (with Alberta Di Giuli), Journal of Financial Economics, Vol. 111 (1), January 2014

• “Red & Blue Investing: Values and Finance” (with Harrison Hong), Journal of Financial Economics, Vol. 103 (1), January 2012

• “Index Mutual Funds and Exchange-Traded Funds,” Journal of Portfolio Management, Vol. 29 (4), Summer 2003

• The Theory and Practice of Investment Management Workbook (with Frank J. Fabozzi and Harry Markowitz), 2003