Skip to main content

Farewell Widener - Here Comes the Summer!

I must apologise to all readers of my Blog for my relative blogging inactivity over the past year. The principal reason for this inactivity has been my role as acting Head of Queen's Management School. I've just signed up to do another year so my blogging activity won't improve any time soon!

The best part of the job has been working with my colleagues to develop the School's unique research, education and engagement agenda. The chief downside to the job is that I have less direct contact with students in the classroom. In addition, my research and blogging have taken a huge hit. I've been attempting to remedy the former over the past couple of weeks by working at Harvard University. I've met up with old friends, a PhD student, and a co-author, but most of my time has been spent in the fantastic Widener Library, which is celebrating its 100 year anniversary.  Today is my last day in the library before my summer holiday.

There is a very close connection between the Widener Library and Belfast. Harry Elkins Widener was a US businessmen, bibliophile and Harvard graduate who died when the built-in-Belfast Titanic sank on its maiden voyage. Shortly after Widener's death, his mother donated the library in his memory.

    

Popular posts from this blog

Bitcoin Bubble?

According to Robert Shiller , speaking at Davos, Bitcoin is a perfect example of a bubble - story here . Shiller sees Bitcoin as a backwards step in the evolution of money.   George Selgin , a free banker, takes an opposing view - click here .  Although he doesn't believe that Bitcoin is money, he sees its development as a fascinating turn in the evolution of money. In particular, he lauds the fact that Bitcoin production is constrained and cannot be infinite. There is a short video below where Bitcoin explain how it works.

How Valuable Are Connections?

Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, Amir Kermani, James Kwak and Todd Mitton have written a paper on whether firms connected to Timothy Geithner benefited from these connections. They do so by looking at how stocks of these firms reacted to the announcement that he was a nominee for Treasury Secretary in November 2008. They find that there were large abnormal returns for connected firms. Below is the paper's abstract and the full paper is available here . The announcement of Timothy Geithner as nominee for Treasury Secretary in November 2008 produced a cumulative abnormal return for financial firms with which he had a connection. This return was about 6% after the first full day of trading and about 12% after ten trading days. There were subsequently abnormal negative returns for connected firms when news broke that Geithner's confirmation might be derailed by tax issues. Excess returns for connected firms may reflect the perceived impact of relying on the advice of a small ne...

Boom and Bust: A Global History of Financial Bubbles

Boom and Bust: A Global History of Financial Bubbles, co-authored with my colleague Will Quinn , is forthcoming in August. It is published by Cambridge University Press and is available for pre-order at Amazon , Barnes and Noble , Waterstones and Cambridge University Press .