Marina Niessner

Professor Niessner is currently a Judith C. and William G. Bollinger Visiting Associate Professor of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. Prior to joining Wharton, she was a Vice President at AQR Capital Management, and prior to that an Assistant Professor of Finance at the Yale School of Management. Dr. Niessner holds a BA in Economics and Statistics and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago.

Dr. Niessner’s main academic research interests are behavioral finance, empirical asset pricing, and FinTech. In her recent work, she applies methods from linguistic psychology to identify fake news articles on knowledge sharing platforms, and to examine their impact on financial markets. Her academic research has been published in the Journal of Finance and the Review of Financial Studies, among others, as well as featured in the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal.

Research Interests:

• Behavioral Finance, Empirical Asset Pricing, FinTech

Education

• PhD University of Chicago (2007 — 2013)
• BA University of Chicago (2001 — 2005)

Research

• « Initial Coin Offerings: Financing Growth with Cryptocurrency Token Sales », with Sabrina Howell and David Yermack, Lead article and Editor’s Choice, The Review of Financial Studies, Issue ​33 (9) 2020, pp 3925–3974

• « Why Don’t We Agree? Evidence from a Social Network of Investors », with Anthony Cookson, Journal of Finance Vol 75, No 1 (February 2020), pp. 173-228

• « Is Investor Attention for Sale? The Role of Advertising in Financial Markets », with Joshua Madsen, Journal of Accounting Research Vol 57, Issue 3 (June 2019), pp. 763-795

Companies

• Judith C. and William G. Bollinger Visiting Associate Professor of Finance The Wharton School (2021)
• Vice President AQR Capital Management (2018 — 2021)
• Assistant Professor of Finance Yale School of Management (2013 — 2018)