Faculty News

Manju Puri received a $40,000 Alfred P. Sloan research grant.

MANJU PURI, associate professor of finance, has been awarded an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, an honor that carries a $40,000 grant. Puri’s work has focused on financial intermediation, particularly banking and venture capital.

Sloan research fellowships, awarded for two-year terms, recognize young scientists who show outstanding promise of making fundamental contributions to knowledge.

Puri’s research in banking has centered on the conflicts of interest banks face in serving as both securities underwriters and lenders to companies, and how their role compares to that of investment banking firms, which serve only as underwriters. Her papers on universal banking and the implications for the Glass-Steagall Banking Act have received numerous awards.

Puri has coauthored several papers on the subject of venture capital, including its role in the professionalization of start-up firms and its role in the product market. Along with Thomas Hellmann, she has recently been awarded a National Science Foundation grant to investigate the economic foundations of venture capital. (See research papers listed on the Web at https://gsbapps.stanford.edu/researchpapers/.

Appointed to the National Bureau of Economic Research in 2001, she also serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Financial Intermediation, the Journal of Money Credit and Banking, and the Journal of Banking and Finance.

BEHIND THE SCENES of negotiating the new trade agreement between the United States and Vietnam last summer, labor economist Robert Flanagan was helping Vietnamese academics and policy makers understand the ramifications. Flanagan, who is the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of International Labor Economics and Policy Analysis, spoke in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City about the impact of free trade and increased foreign direct investment on emerging economies. The seminars were organized by the University of San Francisco Law School, which has been working to build legal institutions in Southeast Asia.

“I explored the paradox of why free trade agreements, which promise benefits to all parties to the agreement, are so difficult to implement,” Flanagan says. “I also discussed the effects of free trade agreements on growth and foreign investment elsewhere in Southeast Asia.”

Flanagan says he felt the most important seminar was in Hanoi at the Central Institute for Economic Management, because that agency “has responsibility for most economic policy in Vietnam.”

THE UNIVERSITÉ PARIS-DAUPHINE, one of the institutions that comprises what was formerly known as the Sorbonne, has awarded David Kreps an honorary doctorate. The November award ceremony was held in the legendary “war room” of the converted NATO headquarters that now houses the prestigious university.

Kreps is the School’s Paul E. Holden Professor of Economics and a senior associate dean for academic affairs. He is known for his pathbreaking work in dynamic choice behavior and economic contexts where dynamic choices are key. Among his many contributions to the literature of financial economics and dynamic games, he has authored a widely used graduate-level textbook on economic theory.

GEORGE PARKER, who has served the Business School and University in more roles than even he can count, was honored by GSB faculty recently with the Robert T. Davis Award, recognizing his extraordinary contributions to the School.

Parker, the Dean Witter Professor of Finance and Management, first came to the School in 1960 as an MBA student and returned in 1965 to study for a doctorate. He taught at Columbia University and worked at a venture capital firm before joining the GSB faculty in 1973 to teach finance and direct the Sloan Program. Most recently, he directed the MBA Program.

Dean Robert Joss described Parker as an “irrepressible, enthusiastic, and tireless ambassador for the School”; a great teacher, communicator, and adviser to young people, deans, and university presidents. Former Davis Award winners James Van Horne and Charles Holloway agreed with Joss, but they picked apart Parker’s skills as a student and cowboy.

Parker drove Van Horne crazy with questions when he was in his finance class, Van Horne recalled. “Like the Energizer Bunny, he never really wore down.” Holloway regaled other faculty with his stories of Parker’s mishaps on horseback, including the time Parker returned to the barn covered with the molasses that he had intended to use as a lure to catch his horse.

The Davis Award was created in memory of Professor Robert Davis to honor a lifetime of achievement at the School.

FACULTY MEMBER J. MICHAEL HARRISON has been honored with the 2001 Frederick W. Lanchester Prize of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS), the leading professional and scholarly organization devoted to operations research and the management sciences. The prize annually recognizes the best contribution to the discipline published in English and includes a commemorative medallion and a $5,000 cash award.

Harrison, the Gregor G. Peterson Professor of Operations Management, was recognized for a series of four papers appearing between 1988 and 2000. The papers discuss problems of resource allocation in “processing networks”—examples include manufacturing systems, communication networks, product development systems, and service operations like insurance claims processing. Harrison develops a novel method of redeploying available capacity in the face of chance events; for example, when equipment fails or when demand surges in manufacturing.

MARGARET NEALE was elected to the Fellows Group of the National Academy of Management at its annual meeting held in August. She is one of 159 members of the 11,000-member academy who have been honored for their “significant contributions to the science and practice of management.”

Neale is the John G. McCoy–Banc One Corporation Professor of Organizations and Dispute Resolution. Her research and teaching focus on negotiation and decision making, collaboration, the allocation of burdens and benefits, learning in groups and teams, and diversity. Other members of the Business School faculty who have been named fellows of the management academy and the year in which they were named are Jeffrey Pfeffer, 1986; James March, 1988; and Joanne Martin, 1993.