J. Anthony Cookson  
Associate Professor of Finance 
Leeds School of Business
University of Colorado at Boulder
(tony [dot] lastname [at] colorado.edu)

Publications

Why don't we agree? Evidence from an investor social network (with Marina Niessner).
Journal of Finance.  Forthcoming. SSRN.
Best Paper at the 2017 Front Range Finance Seminar.

Growing up without finance (with James R. Brown and Rawley Z. Heimer)
Journal of Financial Economics. Forthcoming. JFE. SSRN.

Does contract enforcement mitigate hold up? 
Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Vol 7, No 2 (September 2018), pp. 245-275. RCFS. SSRN.

When saving is gambling. 
Journal of Financial Economics. Vol 129, No 1 (July 2018), pp. 24-45. JFE. SSRN. 
Talk of the Town Award at the 2015 Finance Down Under Conference

Anticipated entry and entry deterrence: Evidence from the American casino industry. 
Management Science. Vol 64, No 5 (May 2018), pp. 2325-2344. MS. SSRN. 

Law and finance matter: Lessons from externally-imposed courts (with James R. Brown and Rawley Z. Heimer). 
Review of Financial Studies Vol 30, No. 3 (March 2017), pp. 1019-1051. RFS. SSRN.
Best Paper in Financial Markets and Institutions at the 2015 FMA Conference.

Courting economic development (with James R. Brown and Rawley Z. Heimer). 
World Bank Economic Review. Vol 30, No Supp 1 (March 2017). WBER.

Leverage and strategic preemption: Lessons from entry plans and incumbent investments. 
Journal of Financial Economics Vol 123, No 2 (February 2017), pp. 292-312. JFE. SSRN.

Determinants of bank mergers: A revealed preference analysis (with Oktay Akkus and Ali Hortacsu).  
Management Science. Vol. 62, No. 8 (August 2016), pp. 2241-2258. MS. SSRN.

Institutions and casinos: An empirical analysis of the location of Indian casinos. 
Journal of Law and Economics. Vol 53, No. 4 (November 2010), pp. 651-687. Jstor.

Working Papers

Assortative matching and reputation in the market for first issues (with Oktay Akkus and Ali Hortacsu)
Revise and Resubmit at Management Science. SSRN.

A text-based analysis of corporate innovation (with Gustaf Bellstam and Sanjai Bhagat). 
Revise and Resubmit at Management Science. SSRN.
Outstanding Paper in Corporate Finance at the 2017 Midwest Finance Association Conference.

Some people say: Immature information in corporate disclosures (with S. Katie Moon and Joonki Noh). SSRN.

Shale shocked: The long run effect of wealth on household debt (with Erik P. Gilje and Rawley Z. Heimer).
University of Kentucky Conference Version here [currently revising the paper. look for more "official" SSRN or NBER WP version soon]

Works in Progress

Several paper ideas related to Wealth shocks and household finances: Evidence from mineral royalty payments (with Erik P. Gilje and Rawley Z. Heimer).
Funded by NBER-HF Small Grants Program.

Anatomy of financial frictions: A fresh look at private firms (with James R. Brown, Rawley Z. Heimer, and Ivan Ivanov).
Presented at 2015 FRA Early Ideas Session.

Teaching

At Leeds School of Business (2013 - present)
Quantitative Methods (MSBC 5030 -- a master's statistics and programming course). Summers 2015, 2016, 2017, Fall 2018, and Fall 2019
Investments (MBAX 6200 -- a MS finance course). Fall 2018, Fall 2019.
Foundations of Financial Analysis (FNCE 2010 -- a calculus and statistics course). Spring 2018 Term (2 Sections).
 Empirical Methods in Finance (FNCE 7200 -- a doctoral research seminar). Spring 2016, Spring 2018.
Investments (FNCE 3030 -- an undergraduate finance course). Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2016.
 Managerial Economics (MSBC 5015 -- a master's of finance core course). Summer 2015.

I taught extensively at UChicago while pursuing my Ph.D.  I self-published a textbook from notes I developed while teaching at Montana State University.  I did the same with some econometrics notes I developed while teaching Honors Econometrics at Chicago.  In addition, you might find my YouTube channel interesting or useful.

Current and Upcoming Academic Activities

  • Co-director of Consumer Financial Decision Making Center (since Fall 2018, with Phil Fernbach).  And, co-organizer of the Boulder Summer Conference.
  • Director of the MS in Finance program at CU Boulder (since Fall 2018).
  • Teaching Quant Methods and Investments to MS students at CU Boulder (Fall 2019).
  • Upcoming keynote address at the CFP Board's 2020 Academic Research Colloquium, Arlington VA (Feb 20-22, 2020)
  • Conference presentations at Helsinki Finance Summit (Aug 19-20), European Finance Association Conference (Aug 21-24), Denver University Summer Conference (Sept 6-7), Northern Finance Association Conference (Sept 13-15).
  • Discussions at Helsinki Finance Summit (Aug 19-20) and Northern Finance Association (Sept 13-15)
  • Seminars at Texas A&M (Sept 27th), Yonsei University (Korea, Oct 4th), University of Amsterdam (Nov 8th), Rice University (Nov 14th), University of Houston (Nov 15th), Indiana University (March 27th).
For more information about my past presentations, service, advising, refereeing, etc., check out my CV.

Miscellaneous and Personal

Father of two exceptional children. Husband to my high school sweetheart.

Favorites:
Economist: Tie between Ronald Coase and Gary Becker.
Movie: Forrest Gump.
Country (outside of US): Switzerland
City: London
US State: Montana
YouTube Channel: Relaxing Piano Music. 

Other passions: