Market behavior, machine learning, mental health, and mastering new skills. Here are MIT Sloan’s nine new professors who are experts in some of today’s top priorities and concerns for managers.
Assistant Professor of System Dynamics
Comes from: Most recently, Chu was a visiting assistant professor of management and organization at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Chu has a PhD in physics from the California Institute of Technology, and a PhD in business administration from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.
Research: Chu’s recent work includes “Slowed canonical progress in large fields of science,” a paper that shows that it’s hard for new ideas and research to get traction in particularly popular areas of science. Chu’s current working papers examine dominance in industries like Korean pop music, Hollywood movies, and the connection between the timing of entertainment and political scandals involving the Korean ruling party.
Find out more: On Chu’s Google Scholar page.
Assistant Professor of Finance
Comes from: Liu joins MIT Sloan after six years with the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, where Liu earned a PhD in business administration.
Research: Liu’s research areas are private equity, entrepreneurial finance, health care finance, and corporate finance. Liu’s recent working paper “Bargaining with Private Equity: Implications for Hospital Prices and Patient Welfare,” studies the impact of hospital buyouts on health spending and patient welfare, while “An Invisible Oncologist: Health Implications of Financing Frictions” looks at the relation of financial spending and health care choices in the context of cancer.
Find out more: On Liu’s personal website and Google Scholar page.
Assistant Professor of Applied Economics
Comes from: Makarin’s most recent position was assistant professor in economics at the Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance, located in Rome. Makarin has a PhD in economics from Northwestern University.
Research: Makarin’s research areas are political economy, development economics, economics of digitization, and applied microeconomics. Some of Makarin’s most recent papers reflect socio-political issues in Russia. They include: “Divided we stay home: Social distancing and ethnic diversity,” which compared the degrees of COVID-19 social distancing in different Russian cities; and “Social Media and Protest Participation: Evidence from Russia,” which looked at the impact of Russia’s top online social network on protests. Makarin is also the co-author of a working paper on the mental health of college students and the relation of mental health to Facebook’s expansion on U.S. campuses.
Find out more: On Makarin’s personal website, Google Scholar page, and Twitter.
Assistant Professor of Finance
Comes from: Mota was most recently a postdoctoral research associate for the Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy and Finance at Princeton University. Mota earned a PhD in finance from Columbia Business School.
Research: Mota’s research focuses on asset pricing and macrofinance. Mota has explored the demand for safe assets, the role of nonfinancial firms as financial agents, the cross-section of risk and return, and information in financial markets. Mota is the co-author of “The Savings of Corporate Giants,” which looks at the financial portfolios of nonfinancial firms and how they manage those assets.
Find out more: On Mota’s personal website, Google Scholar page, and Twitter.
Assistant Professor of Accounting
Comes from: Prior to MIT Sloan, Phillips was an instructor at the University of Miami Herbert Business School. Phillips received a PhD in accounting from that same university.
Research: Phillips’ published research and papers include several on lending. One is “Financial Statement Complexity and Bank Lending,” which looks at the relation between a firm’s reliance on a bank in the face of a complex financial report; and “Contracting in the Dark: the Rise of Public-Side Lenders in the Syndicated Loan Market, which studies why some lenders don’t look at borrowers’ private information.
Find out more: On Phillips’ personal website and Google Scholar page.
Assistant Professor of Information Technology at MIT Sloan, and Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT
Comes from: Most recently, Raghavan was a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Center for Research on Computation and Society. Raghavan received a PhD in computer science from Cornell University. Raghavan also spent time as a visiting researcher for Facebook, evaluating social impacts of products, and interned with Google, analyzing user behavior on social media.
Research: Raghavan focuses on algorithmic fairness and behavioral economics, as well as using algorithmic tools for hiring. One of Raghavan’s more recent pieces of research, “The Challenge of Understanding What Users Want: Inconsistent Preferences and Engagement Optimization,” looks at the relationship between platform optimization and user preferences. Raghavan also has a paper on “Roles for Computing in Social Change.”
Find out more: On Raghavan’s personal website, Google Scholar page, and Twitter.
Assistant Professor of Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management
Comes from: Rilinger was previously a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne, Germany. Rilinger earned a PhD in sociology from the University of Chicago.
Research: Rilinger’s focus is primarily in economic sociology, with an emphasis on understanding socially destructive market behavior. Rilinger is currently working on a project about the 2000 – 01 California energy crisis. A recent paper explored how the proliferation of economic language can undermine the political influence of economists.
Find out more: On Rilinger’s personal website, Google Scholar page, and Twitter.
Assistant Professor of Finance
Comes from: Siani holds an economics PhD from the Columbia Business School.
Research: Siani’s research interests include credit markets, securities issuance, monetary policy, and financial intermediation. One of Siani’s most recent papers, “Bond Market Stimulus: Firm-Level Evidence from 2020-21,” looks at firm behavior following the Federal Reserve support for corporate bond markets in 2020. Siani is also an author of a paper on primary bond markets, and a paper on raising bond capital.
Find out more: On Siani’s personal website.
Assistant Professor of System Dynamics
Comes from: Prior to joining MIT Sloan, Yang was an Omidyar Fellow and Peters Hurst Scholar for the Santa Fe Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Yang received a PhD in engineering sciences and applied mathematics from Northwestern University.
Research: Yang uses math to understand collective human behavior like decision-making and political party polarization. Yang’s recent work includes research arguing that improved collective intelligence can help with risk resilience, and a model that shows the relationship between different short- and long-term timescales within the context of developing and mastering new skills.
Find out more: On Yang’s personal website, Google Scholar page, and Twitter.
