Ben-David was a finalist for the Lehman Brothers Fellowship for Research Excellence in Finance in 2007 and received a BSI Gamma Foundation research grant and an Equipment and Leasing Foundation research grant in 2006. He received a Teaching Assistance Award in 2004–05 from the GSB Executive MBA program in Singapore and Barcelona. Ben-David’s research on real estate was featured in the Freakonomics column inThe New York Times.

Areas of Expertise

• Corporate Finance
• Behavioral Finance
• Real Estate Markets

Education

• PhD, Finance, University of Chicago, Booth School of Business
• MBA, University of Chicago, Booth School of Business
• MS in Finance, London Business School
• MS in Industrial Engineering, Tel-Aviv University
• BS in Industrial Engineering, Tel-Aviv University
• BA in Accounting, Tel-Aviv University

FIN 872 - Real Estate Finance

This course provides a graduate-level framework for analyzing individual real-estate
transactions (both commercial and residential) and real-estate assets as an asset class. We will cover three topics in depth... valuation, capital market integration, and role in the recent 2008 financial crisis.

Publications in Refereed Journals

•  Ben-David, Itzhak, and David Hirshleifer, "Are Investors Really Reluctant to Realize Their Losses? Trading Responses to Past Returns and the Disposition Effect," Review of Financial Studies, forthcoming.
• Itzhak Ben-David, Francesco Franzoni,and Rabih Moussawi, 2012, Hedge Fund Stock Trading in the Financial Crisis of 2007-2009, Review of Financial Studies 25, 1-54, Lead Article.
• Agarwal, Sumit, Gene Amromin, Itzhak Ben-David, Souphala Chomsisengphet, and Douglas Evanoff, 2011, The Role of Securitization in Mortgage Renegotiation, Journal of Financial Economics 102(3), 559-578.
• Ben-David, Itzhak, 2011, Financial Constraints and Inflated Home Prices during the Real-Estate Boom, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 3, 55-78.
  • Featured in Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt, Pay-back Time, Freakonomics column, New York Times Magazine, 10 June 2007
  • Award Winner of BSI Gamma Foundation, Real Estate, 2008
  • First Prize Winner of CQA Academic Competition, 2008

• Agarwal, Sumit, Gene Amromin, Itzhak Ben-David, Souphala Chomsisengphet, and Douglas Evanoff, 2010, Learning to Cope: Voluntary Financial Education Programs and the Housing Crisis, American Economic Review – Papers and Proceeding 100(2), 495-500.

Book Chapters and Other Publications

• Agarwal, Sumit, Gene Amromin, Itzhak Ben-David, Souphala Chomsisengphet, and Douglas Evanoff, 2010, Financial Counseling, Financial Literacy, and Household Decision Making, in Mitchell, O., and A. Lusardi (eds.), Financial Literacy: Implications for Retirement Security and the Financial Marketplace, Oxford University Press.
• Ben-David, Itzhak, 2010, Dividend Policy Decisions, in H. Kent Baker and John R. Nofsinger (eds.), Behavioral Finance (Robert W. Kolb Series in Finance), John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New Jersey.
• Ben-David, Itzhak, and Jim Schallheim, 2007, The Response to Customer Default: Captive Versus Non-captive Lessors, Journal of Equipment Lease Financing 25(1), 1-6
  
  • Awarded Equipment Leasing and Finance Foundation research grant, 2006
• Ben-David, Itzhak, 2005, Company Performance and Leased Assets in Sale-and-Leaseback Transactions, Journal of Equipment Lease Financing 23 (2), 1-8
  • Awarded Equipment Leasing and Finance Foundation research grant, 2005
• Ben-David, Itzhak, and Tzvi Raz, 2001, An Integrated Approach for Risk Response Development in Project Planning, Journal of Operational Research Society 52, 14-25

Media Clips

• Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow, 2011, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York
• R. Christopher Small, Acquirer Valuation and Acquistion Decisions, Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, 12 September 2011
• Jeff Grabmeier, Hedge Funds Sold Stocks Quickly During Financial Crisis, Hurting Mutual Fund Investors, Research News at OSU, 25 August 2011
• Gregory Connor, Nama's Property Price Insurance Scheme, The Irish Economy, 5 August 2011
• Stephanie Taylor Christensen, Seller Add-Ons Contribute to Housing Market Lull, Study Finds, Minyanville, 26 July 2011
• Alex Eichler, Illegal Cash-Back Deals Worsened The Housing Bubble, Drove Up Foreclosures: Report, Huffington Post, 15 July 2011
• Brian O'Connell, Mortgage Modification's Dirty Little Secret, BankingMyWay.com (TheStreet.com), 8 March 2011
• AllAboutAlpha.com, Hedge funds and "stock manipulation": Perpetrators, accomplices or just in the wrong place at the wrong time (again)?, AllAboutAlpha.com, 2 March 2011
• Michael Konczai, The Latest on Servicing and Modifications, Washington Post, 10 November 2010
• Paul Willen, Securitized mortgage loan or not, lenders are not restructuring, Real Estate Research blog, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, 20 October 2010
• Amy Koehnen, Mortgage Counseling, Plain Language, and Financial Education: What Works?, Forefront: New Ideas on Economic Policy from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, October 2010
• Charles Evans, the President and Executive Director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Informing the future of Housing Finance: Lessons from the Recent Past, Speech delivered before the Indianapolis Neighborhood Housing Partnership Community Breakfast on August 24, 2010
• Richard H. Thaler, The Overconfidence Problem in Forecasting, New York Times, 22 August 2010
• Shefali Anand, Indians are Better than Americans, Wall Street Journal, India News, 2 July 2010
• Charlie Mead, Where Federal Mortgage Program Stalls, Chicago Events Pick Up Slack, Medill Reports Chicago (Northwestern University), 18 May 2010
  
• New Voices at Fisher: Ben-David on the Mortgage Crisis, Fisher College Annual Report, September 2009
• Zubin Jelveh, Should We Give Financial Advice for the Poor?, New Republic, 22 April 2009
• Steve Wartenberg, President's plan will save homes, advocates say, Columbus Dispatch, 6 March 2009
• Phil Kadner, Southwest Side had early solution to housing crisis, Chicago Sun-Times, 10 January 2009
• Melanie McIntyre, Mortgage Industry More Cautious, but Not Totally Backing Away From ARMs, The Daily Reporter, 29 August 2008
• James Surowiecki, That Uncertain Feeling, The New Yorker, 1 September 2008
• Alan Rappeport, Half Full, and Then Some, CFO.com, 1 May 2008
• Stephen Dubner, A Look Back at the Subprime Mess, Freakonomics blog, 7 April 2008
• Matthew Bandyk, Experts? Not in the Stock Market, U.S. News & World Report, 6 February 2008
• Alan Rappeport, Feeling Confident, CFO.com, 31 January 2008
• Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt, Pay-back Time, Freakonomics column, New York Times Magazine, 10 June 2007
  • Reprinted at the TheMarker Financial Magazine (Hebrew), July 2007
• Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt, Real-Estate Sleight of Hand, Freakonomics blog, 9 June 2007

Articles

• Ben-David, Itzhak, and Yoad Shefi, 2004, The New Education System, 10 November 2004, Globes (Hebrew)
• Ben-David, Itzhak, and Guy David, 2003, A Pyrrhic Victory - An Economic Analysis of the Corruption in the Likud Party, 1 January 2003, Globes (Hebrew)
• Ben-David, Itzhak, Gadi Rabinowitz, and Tzvi Raz, Economic Optimization of Project Risk Management Efforts

The Financial Crisis

• Agarwal, Sumit, Gene Amromin, Itzhak Ben-David, Souphala Chomsisengphet, and Douglas Evanoff, The Effects of Mandated Financial Counseling on Household Mortgage Decisions: Evidence from a Natural Experiment, R&R Journal of Financial Economics
  • Grant award from FDIC
  • Paolo Baffi Fellowship from Bocconi University
  • Award from Networks Financial Institute: Significant and innovative research on financial services (honorable mention award)
• Ben-David, Itzhak, High Leverage and Willingness to Pay: Evidence from the Residential Housing Market
• Agarwal, Sumit, and Itzhak Ben-David, The Effects of Loan Officers' Compensation on Loan Approval and Performance: Direct Evidence from a Corporate Experiment
• Agarwal, Sumit, Gene Amromin, Itzhak Ben-David, Souphala Chomsisengphet, and Yan Zhang, Second Liens and the Holdup Problem in First Mortgage Renegotiation, Coming soon
• Agarwal, Sumit, Gene Amromin, Itzhak Ben-David, Souphala Chomsisengphet, Tomasz Piskorski, and Amit Seru, Can Government Intervention Improve Market Outcome? Evidence from Home Affordability Mortgage Program, Coming soon
• Agarwal, Sumit, Gene Amromin, Itzhak Ben-David, and Serdar Dinc, The Political Concerns of Mortgage Servicers and Their Decision to Foreclose, Coming soon
• Ben-David, Itzhak, Ajay Palvia, and Chester Spatt, Bank De-Leveraging and the Limits to Market Discipline, Coming soon
  • Grant award from GARP Foundation
    
• Agarwal, Sumit, Gene Amromin, Itzhak Ben-David, Souphala Chomsisengphet, and Douglas Evanoff,  Market-Based Loss Mitigation Practices for Troubled Mortgages following the Financial Crisis

Limits-to-Arbitrage

• Ben-David, Itzhak, John Graham, Cam Harvey, Managerial Miscalibration, R&R Quarterly Journal of Economics
  • Featured in Richard Thaler’s column, The Overconfidence Problem in Forecasting, New York Times, 22 August 2010
  • Featured in Daniel Kahneman's book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, 2011
• Ben-David, Itzhak, Francesco A. Franzoni, Augustin Landier, and Rabih Moussawi, Do Hedge Funds Manipulate Stock Prices?  R&R Journal of Finance
• Ben-David, Itzhak, Francesco A. Franzoni, and Rabih Moussawi, ETFs, Arbitrage, and Contagion
• Ben-David, Itzhak, Denys Glushkov, and Rabih Moussawi, Do Hedge Funds Really Avoid High Idiosyncratic Stocks?
• Ben-David, Itzhak, and Darren Roulstone, Idiosyncratic Risk and Corporate Transactions
• Ben-David, Itzhak, Michael Drake, and Darren Roulstone, Are Stock Acquirers Overvalued? Evidence from Short-Selling Activity