Professor of Finance

Sabrina T. Howell

March 2024: Research on energy innovation policy cited in the 2024 Economic Report of the President (White House, Council of Economic Advisors)
October 2023: Research on how automation in lending increases loans to Black-owned businesses is cited in the CFPB's final rule on open banking.
October 2023: Commentary on SBA lending rule changes in CFO Dive.
February 2023: Nursing home research cited in press release of Biden-Harris Administration Rulemaking to Increase Transparency of Nursing Home Ownership. CMS Press Release.
January 2023: "Evidence on SME Financing from the Cutting Edge of Economic Research." C.D. Howe Institute report to Canadian Innovation Policymakers.
Research on angel investor tax credits cited in government reports on the policies in Iowa (2022), Maine (2022), Kansas (2020), and Virginia (2022).December 2022: "Mechanisms and Impacts of Innovation Policy." NBER Reporter.
November 2022: Panelist on small business lending policy at FTA Fintech Summit (Video)
July 2022: Paper on AF SBIR program extensively cited in GAO report and discussed in Senate Small Business Committee
March 2022: Paper on private equity in healthcare referenced in President Biden's State of the Union address (see here and here), and in a White House fact sheet on nursing home reforms.
February 2022: Presented on private equity in healthcare to Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
2021: Video presentation at AFWERX Accelerate here.
March 2021: Testimony on the role of private equity in healthcare before the U.S. House of Representatives Ways & Means Oversight Subcommittee.
2020: Letter from the U.S. Air Force SBIR program
2020: Letter from the National Science Foundation SBIR program

Contribution to Policy

The Innovation and Diffusion Podcast (Sept 2024): "Financing Innovation". Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-innovation-and-diffusion-podcast/id1708817309

Press Coverage (by Paper)

Private Equity: Belson, Ken. "From the Playing Field to Wall Street", The New York Times. July 2024.

""Leveraged Payouts: How Using New Debt to Pay Returns in Private Equity Affects Firms, Employees, Creditors, and Investors."

The Financial Times. 2024. "The dodgy details of private equity’s ‘dividend recaps’." September 20.

"All Clear for Takeoff: Evidence from Airports on the Effects of Infrastructure Privatization." With Yeejin Jang, Hyeik Kim, and Michael S. Weisbach. 2023.

Freakonomics Radio. "Is Your Plane Ticket Too Expensive — or Too Cheap?" NPR, March 2023

NBER Digest Feature. 2023.

Tabarrok, Alex. 2023. "Privatization Improves Airports." Marginal Revolution Blog.

"Lender Automation and Racial Disparities in Credit Access." 2022. With Theresa Kuchler, David Snitkof, Johannes Stroebel, and Jun Wong. Research Note.

Cross, Miriam. 2023. "Community bank, loan marketplace pilot transaction-based underwriting" American Banker.

Cross, Miriam. 2022. "Are fintechs living up to their promise of financial inclusion?" American Banker.

Cowley, Stacy. 2021. "Racial Bias Skewed Small-Business Relief Lending, Study Says." The New York Times.

Foster Frau, Sophia. 2021. "Racial bias affected Black-owned small businesses seeking pandemic relief loans, study finds." The Washington Post.

Featured on the Wharton Fintech Podcast: "Did Fintech Save Minority-Owned Businesses in the PPP? With NYU's Dr. Sabrina Howell." 2021.

Hoff, Madison. 2021. "Fintechs helped Black-owned small businesses get access to PPP loans during the pandemic more than banks did. It's weird." Business Insider.

McGirt, Ellen and Jonathan Vanian. 2021. "Researchers: A.I. can play a role in eliminating bias in lending, but only with human help." Fortune.

Barcena, Lorena et al. 2021. "Hutchins Roundup." Brookings Institution.

Hrushka, Anna. 2021. "Automation helped Black borrowers get more out of PPP at fintechs, big banks: study." BankingDive.

"Local Journalism under Private Equity Ownership." With Michael Ewens and Arpit Gupta. 2022.

Manjoo, Farhad. 2022. "Private Equity Doesn’t Want You to Read This." The New York Times.

Dudley, Briar. 2022. "Study: Private equity firms buying newspapers cut local news." The Seattle Times.

Jackson, Rebecca. 2022. "Private equity is buying up America’s newspapers." The Economist.

Coy, Peter. 2022. "Opinion". The New York Times.

Pizzigati, Sam. 2022. "From the Kingpins of Private Equity, A New Dagger to Democracy." Inequality.org.

Arbel, Tali. 2021. "Alden puts its stamp on Tribune with new debt and leadership." Associated Press.

“Financing Innovation: Evidence from R&D Grants.” 2017. The American Economic Review 107 (4).
U.S. Department of Energy. 2019. "Benefits of EERE Small Business Innovation Grants Confirmed i in New Study." May 3.

Council on Foreign Relations. 2015. "Keeping the Edge: U.S. Innovation." Report.
Smith, Noah. 2015. "Angel Investing, Government Style." Bloomberg. July 9.
Pethokoukis, James. 2015. "Uncle Sam, angel investor?" AEIdeas, July 15.
Davis, Lucas. 2015. "How Should We Design Government Policies to Stimulate Innovation?" Haas Energy Institute. March 23.
Gill, Dee. 2015. "Small, Early Stage R&D Grants to Energy Startups have Large Impact." Chicago Booth Daily Data. February 2.
Howell, Sabrina. 2014. "The Impact of Government Grants in the Clean Energy Sector." Cleantech Group. January 9.

"Opening up Military Innovation: Causal Effects of ‘Bottom-Up’ Reforms to U.S. Defense Research " With Jason Rathje, John Van Reenen and Jun Wong. 2021.

O'Keefe, Kate. 2022. U.S. Small-Business Programs’ Future Is Clouded by Congressional Fight. The Wall Street Journal. July 7.

"When Investor Incentives and Consumer Interests Diverge: Private Equity in Higher Education." With Charlie Eaton and Constantine Yannelis. 2020. The Review of Financial Studies 33 (9).

Cumming, Chris. 2019. Warren Probes Apollo and KKR on Backing For-Profit Colleges. The Wall Street Journal.
Scigliuzzo, Davide. 2019. Everything is Private Equity Now. Bloomberg Businessweek.
Senator Elizabeth Warren letter requesting information from six private equity firms about their investments in for-profit education. (Summary on Warren website here.) 2019.
Berman, Jillian. 2018. "When private equity firms buy colleges, students often pay more."
Segal, Julie. 2018. "When Private Equity Wins and Consumers Lose." The Institutional Investor.
New York Advocacy Organizations' Comment on U.S. Department of Education Gainful Employment Rules. 2018.

"Entrepreneurial Spillovers from Corporate R&D." With Tania Babina. 2020.
Brookings Hutchins Roundup Dec 20, 2018.
Brin, Dina. 2018. "Corporate R&D Investment Appears To Spur Employees To Startup Venture Path." Forbes, Dec 30.
Arends, Brett. 2019. "The No. 1 reason why big, innovative companies suffer a ‘brain drain’". MarketWatch, Jan 14.

"Do Cash Windfalls Affect Wages? Evidence from R&D Grants to Small Firms." With J. David Brown. 2019.

Featured in lead article of NBER Digest, March 2020

"Does Private Equity Investment in Healthcare Benefit Patients? Evidence from Nursing Homes." With Atul Gupta, Constantine Yannelis, and Abhinav Gupta. 2021.

NPR Marketplace. "Private equity’s role in health care is under increasing scrutiny." April, 2024

Dealbook by the New York Times. "Private Equity and the Pandemic." October, 2023

The New York Times. "Private Equity Is Gutting America — and Getting Away With It." April, 2023.

"Biden Taking A Big Regulatory Swipe At The Small Percentage of Private Equity Investment in Senior Care." February 20, 2023. Yahoo Finance.
When Private Equity Takes Over a Nursing Home, August 25, 2022. The New Yorker

MarketWatch, April 30, 2021.

Bloomberg Law, April 6, 2021

Bloomberg News, March 25, 2021

U.S. House of Representatives Ways & Means Oversight Subcommittee. 2021. "Testimony of Sabrina T. Howell." March 25.

NPR, March 23, 2021.