Anat Admati

Stanford Graduate School of Business economist Anat Admati is a leading authority on financial markets and regulations and on the political economy of corporate governance. She offers insights about the causes of governance failures in both private and government institutions, why such failures are so dangerous and harmful, and what we must do to address the challenge of effective governance.

Professor Admati offers must-know insights into the causes of financial crises and into the recent effort at regulatory reform in Europe and in the U.S. In her book with Martin Hellwig The Bankers’ New Clothes: What’s Wrong with Banking and What to Do about It and elsewhere, she debunks claims by many that the “too big to fail” problem has been solved or that making the system safer would hurt economic growth. She warns that the system remains excessively opaque, fragile, distorted, and rife with reckless practices.

Professor Admati highlights the inefficiencies that can arise from the use of financialised yardsticks such as profits and stock prices in executive compensation. Effective practice and policy must counter the incentives for fraud, deception, misallocation of risk, and other rent-seeking behaviors.

Professor Admati speaks to the popular sense that the political and economic system is “rigged” based on her experiences in engaging with academics, policy, and media. She urges academics to break silos and economists to begin taking politics seriously in their work if they want to be part of the solution rather than, even inadvertently, contribute to harmful economic and political outcomes.

As a finance professor in a prominent business school, Prof. Admati offers insights on the claim that the focus on “shareholder value” in business schools has caused harm and is responsible for the failure of capitalism to serve society. Admati argues it is time to update our approach to management education and complement it with other educational efforts. She has embarked on some efforts in her own institutions and offers some specific ideas.

Anat Admati is the George G.C. Parker Professor of Finance and Economics at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. In 2014, she was named one of the most 100 influential people by Time magazine and made Foreign Policy’s list of 100 global thinkers. She serves on the FDIC Systemic Resolution Advisory Committee and the CFTC Market Risk Advisory Committee. She has won awards and served in editorial and other leadership roles in academia and beyond. Admati holds a Ph.D from Yale and an honorary doctorate from the University of Zurich and she is a Fellow of the Econometric Society.