Kornelia Fabisik

Joining the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management · SFI · EPFL · kornelia.fabisik@sfi.ch

I obtained PhD in Finance from the Swiss Finance Institute and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). My research interests lie in empirical corporate finance and corporate governance. I am happy to share that I will be joining the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management as an Assistant Professor of Finance.

Education

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)

Swiss Finance Institute (SFI) PhD Program in Finance
Thesis advisor: Prof. Rüdiger Fahlenbrach

Lausanne, Switzerland
September 2015 - July 2020

London School of Economics (LSE)

Visiting Scholar, Faculty sponsor: Prof. Dirk Jenter

London, United Kingdom
May 2019 - July 2019

Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU)

Master of Science in Business Administration

Munich, Germany
October 2012 - September 2015

HEC Lausanne, University of Lausanne (UNIL)

Exchange student (Master)

Lausanne, Switzerland
September 2013 - February 2014

Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU)

Bachelor of Science in Business Administration

Munich, Germany
October 2009 - September 2012

Research

Publications

Why Are Firms With More Managerial Ownership Worth Less?
[FORTHCOMING IN THE JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL ECONOMICS]

with Rüdiger Fahlenbrach, René M. Stulz, and Jérôme Taillard

Using more than 50,000 firm-years from 1988 to 2015, we show that the empirical relation between a firm’s Tobin’s q and managerial ownership is systematically negative. When we restrict our sample to larger firms as in the prior literature, our findings are consistent with the literature, showing that there is an increasing and concave relation between q and managerial ownership. We show that these seemingly contradictory results are explained by cumulative past performance and liquidity. Better performing firms have more liquid equity, which enables insiders to more easily sell shares after the IPO, and they also have a higher Tobin’s q.

Presentations (*incl. by co-authors):

  • Drexel Corporate Governance Conference* (Philadelphia, USA, 2019)
  • Western Finance Association (WFA) (Huntington Beach, USA, 2019)
  • European Finance Association (EFA)* (Carcavelos, Portugal, 2019)
  • Global Corporate Governance Colloquia (GCGC)* (Fraktfurt, Germany, 2019)

Featured on:

Working papers

Why Do U.S. CEOs Pledge Their Own Company's Stock?
[JOB MARKET PAPER]

Solo-authored

This paper presents the first large-scale empirical analysis of the pledging phenomenon among U.S. CEOs. Between 2007 and 2016, 7.6% of publicly listed U.S. firms disclosed that their CEOs had pledged company stock as collateral for a loan. On average, CEOs pledge 38% of their shares. The mean loan value is an economically sizeable $65 million. CEOs use the funds to either double down (6.0%), hedge their ownership (3.5%), or to obtain liquidity while maintaining ownership (90.5%). My event study results reveal that stock market participants view pledging as value-enhancing, but perceive significant pledging as value-destroying. Similarly, I find no evidence of its negative shareholder value consequences, except for CEOs who engage in significant pledging.

Presentations:

  • EPFL-UNIL Brown Bag Series (Lausanne, Switzerland, 2019)
  • LSE PhD Seminar (London, United Kingdom, 2019)
  • SFI Research Days (Gerzensee, Switzerland, 2019)
  • SFI Academic Job Market Workshop (Lausanne, Switzerland, 2019)
  • American Finance Association (AFA) PhD Student Poster Session (San Diego, USA, 2020)
  • Annual Meeting of the Swiss Society for Financial Market Research (SGF Conference 2020)* cancelled
SSRN
Google Scholar

Teaching

Teaching assistant for courses
  • Managerial Finance
    • EPFL, 2018 - present, English
    • Level: EMBA
    • Course textbook: Corporate Finance by Jonathan B. Berk and Peter DeMarzo

  • Introduction to Finance
    • EPFL, 2016 - present, English
    • Level: Master
    • Course textbook: Corporate Finance by Jonathan B. Berk and Peter DeMarzo

  • Grundlagen der Betriebswirtschaftslehre (Fundamentals of Business Administration)
    • LMU, 2011-2012, German
    • Level: Bachelor
    • Course textbook: Einführung in die Betriebswirtschaftslehre by Werner Neus

Awards

Teaching awards
  • 2019: Best teaching assistant of the Master in Financial Engineering (MFE) section
    • Graduating MFE class of 2019(Link)

  • 2018: College of Management of Technology (CDM) award for outstanding teaching
Other awards
  • 2015: Swiss Finance Institute PhD Program Scholarship, Léman campus, 30,000 CHF

Experience

  • 2014: UBS Investment Bank
    • Full-time, Equity Derivatives Department
    • Zurich, Switzerland

  • 2013: MEAG MUNICH ERGO Asset Management
    • Part-time, Risk Controlling and Limit Management Department
    • Munich, Germany

Certifications

Professional certifications
  • Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA) (Charterholder since 2019)
  • Professional Risk Manager (PRM™) (Charterholder since 2013)
  • Eurex Trading Certificate (2013)

References

Professor Rüdiger Fahlenbrach

Professor of Finance Swiss Finance Institute
Senior Chair École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Quartier UNIL-Chamberonne, Bâtiment Extranef, #211
CH-1015 Lausanne
Switzerland
Email: ruediger.fahlenbrach[at]epfl.ch

Professor Dirk Jenter

Associate Professor of Finance
CEPR Research Fellow
London School of Economics
Department of Finance
Houghton Street, CON 2.15
London WC2A 2AE
Email: D.Jenter[at]lse.ac.uk

Professor René M. Stulz

Everett D. Reese Chair of Banking and Monetary Economics
The Ohio State University
806 Fisher Hall
2100 Neil Avenue
Columbus, OH 43210-1399
Email: stulz.1[at]osu.edu

Contact

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Quartier UNIL-Chamberonne, Bâtiment Extranef, #244
CH-1015 Lausanne
Switzerland
Office: 0041-21-693-2308
Cell: 0041-788-66-77-41
Email: kornelia.fabisik@sfi.ch
https://people.epfl.ch/kornelia.fabisik

CV