Francesca Cornelli is an economist who currently serves as Dean for Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. She is an accomplished scholar and known for her research in corporate governance, private equity, privatization, bankruptcy, initial public offering and innovation policy. Most notably, in 2016 she co-created the Academic Female Finance Committee which was established by the American Finance Association to help encourage and bring more women into the field of financial research. Prior to Kellogg School, Cornelli served as a Professor of Finance, Director of Private Equity and Deputy Dean of Degree Education at the London Business School. She was the first female to be a full professor at the London Business School.
Education
Cornelli completed her education in Università Commerciale Bocconi in Milan, Italy where she received her Bachelors of Economics, summa cum laude, and graduated in 1987. Thereafter, she earned a master's degree and Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University.
Co-authored with Leronardo Felli, they to suggest an efficient way to sell a company in order to maximize proceeds from sales. Cornelli and Felli mentions that although companies can be sold through a completion of a stock exchange or through an initial public offering, there are other possible beneficial ways for company owners.
"Monitoring Managers: Does It Matter?" (2013)
Cornelli co-authored this article with Zbigniew Kominek and Alexander Ljungqvist. In large boards where large shareholders reside, Cornelli, Kominek and Ljungqvist discern whether if shareholders who monitor and actively engage in their business help with performance. If performance is poor, how do shareholders make the decision of whether or not to fire the CEO. Findings show that “soft” data supports shareholders decisions when firing a CEO rather than a “hard” data. Research was based on 473 private sector firms in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
"The Economics of Donations and Enlightened Self-interest" (2014)
Cornelli co-authored this article with Andrea Buraschi to look into donations and fundraising campaigns. After findings and research, according to Cornelli and Buraschi they concluded that how the donations were going to be used, access to private events, and being in a ‘network of donors’ motivates individuals to donate.
Other research
Fundraising for the Arts: The Many Forms of Enlightened Self-interest, European Financial Management, 2014, 20, pp. 1–32.
Monitoring Managers: Does it Matter?, Journal of Finance, 68, 431-481.
How to Sell a Company, International Review of Finance, 2012, 12, pp. 197–226.
Corporate Governance and Private Equity: do LBOs have better boards?, in "Globalization of Alternative Investments", World Economic Forum Working paper, The Global Economic Impact of Private Equity Report 2008.
Private Equity, Chapter 5 of EBRD Transition Report 2006, 2006, pp. 70–80, London, EBRD.
Investor Sentiment and Pre-IPOs Markets, The Journal of Finance, 2006, vol.61, pp 1187–1216.
Bookbuilding: How Informative is the Order Book?, The Journal of Finance, 2003, vol. 58, pp. 1415–44.
Stage Financing and the Role of Convertible Securities, The Review of Economic Studies, 2003, vol.70, No. 1, pp. 1–32.
Book-building and Strategic Allocation, The Journal of Finance, 2001, vol.56, No.6, December, pp. 2337–70.
Patents Renewals and R&D Incentives, RAND Journal of
Economics, 1999, vol. 30, No. 2, Summer, pp. 197–213.
The Capital Structure of Firms in Central and Eastern Europe, in Dierent Paths to a Market Economy: China and European Economies in Transition O. Bouin, F. Coricelli and F. Lemoine, 1998, CEPR/CEPII/OECD.
Large Shareholders, Control Benets and Optimal Schemes for Privatization, RAND Journal of Economics, 1997, vol. 28, No. 4, Winter, pp. 585–604.
Ex-ante Eciency of Bankruptcy Procedures, European Economic Review, 1997, vol.14, April, pp. 475–485.
The Theory of Bankruptcy and Mechanism Design in Crisis, What Crisis? Orderly Workouts for Sovereign Debtors, B. Eichengreen and R. Portes, London: CEPR, 1995.
Privatization in Eastern Europe: the sale of shares to foreign companies, in The Economics of Transformation: Theory and Practice in the New Market Economies, Alfred Schipke and Alan M. Taylor, Berlin: Springer, 1993.
