Itzhak (Zahi) Ben-David

Professor Itzhak ("Zahi") Ben-David is the Neil Klatskin Chair in Finance and Real Estate at The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business. He serves as the Academic Director of the Ohio State University Center for Real Estate. He teaches real estate finance classes to undergraduate and MBA students.

Dr. Ben-David has published in top finance and economics journals, such as Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, and Review of Financial Studies. His area of specialization is the real estate market, the financial markets, and behavioral finance. In his real estate he explores the drivers for the housing bubble and the aftermath of the financial crisis. His research on the financial markets focuses on the behavior and effects institutions in the equity market. In behavioral finance, Dr. Ben-David wrote about behavioral biases of managers, investors, and households.

Publications in Refereed Journals

• Agarwal, Sumit, Gene Amromin, Itzhak Ben-David, Souphala Chomsisengphet, and Douglas Evanoff, 2020, Financial Education versus Costly Counseling: How to Dissuade Borrowers from Choosing Risky Mortgages?, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 12(1), 1–32, Lead Article.

• Ben-David, Itzhak, Francesco Franzoni, and Rabih Moussawi, Do ETFs Increase Volatility? , Journal of Finance 73(6), 2471-2535, Lead Article.

  • Media: Financial Times, 24 Ore, Financial Times, Reuters, Financial News, PBS, Pensions&Investments, MarketWatch, Financial Times
  • SEC-NYU Discussion (mins 12:00-27:00)
  • Best Paper Award in 20^th Annual Multinational Finance Society Conference, Izmir Turkey

• Agarwal, Sumit, Gene Amromin, Itzhak Ben-David, and Serdar Dinc, The Politics of Foreclosures, Journal of Finance 73(6), 2677-2717.

  • Media: ProMarket, MarketWatch
• Agarwal, Sumit, Gene Amromin, Itzhak Ben-David, Souphala Chomsisengphet, and Yan Zhang, Holdup by Junior Claimholders: Evidence from the Mortgage Market, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis 54(1), 247-274.
• Agarwal, Sumit, and Itzhak Ben-David, Loan Prospecting and the Loss of Soft Information, Journal of Financial Economics 129(3), 608-628.
  • Media: NAEIL (South Korean Newspaper) Google-translated
• Ben-David, Itzhak, Justin Birru, and Viktor Prokopenya, Uninformative Feedback and Risk Taking, Review of Finance 22(6), 2009–2036.
• Ben-David, Itzhak, Justin Birru, and Andrea Rossi, Industry Familiarity and Trading: Evidence from the Personal Portfolios of Industry Insiders, Journal of Financial Economics 132, 49-75.
• Baugh, Brian, Itzhak Ben-David, and Hoonsuk Park, Can Taxes Shape an Industry? Evidence from the Implementation of the “Amazon Tax”, Journal of Finance 73(4), 1819-1855.
  • Media: New York Times, BloombergView, Seattle Times, Business Insider, NPR, Bloomberg Businessweek, Boston Globe, MSN Money, Bloomberg TV (mins 4:16-5:50), Wall Street Journal, Vox, Motley Fool, Reuters, Forbes, Fox News, VoxEU, Washington Examiner, Wall Street Journal, Salon.com, NBER Digest, Chicago Tribune, Slate, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Wall Street Journal
  • Grant award from NBER Household Finance
• Ben-David, Itzhak, High Leverage and Willingness to Pay: Evidence from the Residential Housing Market, Real Estate Economics, forthcoming.
• Ben-David, Itzhak, Francesco Franzoni, and Rabih Moussawi, 2017, Exchange Traded Funds, Annual Review of Financial Economics 9, 165–185.
• Ben-David, Itzhak, Ajay Palvia, and Chester Spatt, 2017, Banks’ Internal Capital Markets and Deposit Rates, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis 52 (5), 1797–1826.
  • Grant award from GARP Foundation

• Agarwal, Sumit, Gene Amromin, Itzhak Ben-David, Souphala Chomsisengphet, Tomasz Piskorski, and Amit Seru, 2017, Policy Intervention in Debt Renegotiation: Evidence from the Home Affordable Modification Program, Journal of Political Economy 125 (3), 654–712.

  • Media: Business Week, Wall Street Journal, ProPublica, CBS, MSN Money, Chicago Tribune, CNN Money, Stanford Business Insights

• Beauchaine, Theodore P., Itzhak Ben-David, and Aner Sela, 2017, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Delay Discounting, and Risky Financial Behaviors: A Preliminary Analysis of Self-report Data, PLoS One 12 (5), e0176933.

  • Media: CardRates,com
• Agarwal, Sumit, Itzhak Ben-David, and Vincent Yao, 2017, Systematic Mistakes of Borrowers in the Mortgage Market and Lack of Financial Sophistication, Journal of Financial Economics123 (1), 42–58.
• Agarwal, Sumit, Itzhak Ben-David, and Vincent Yao, 2015, Collateral Valuation and Institutional Pressures: Evidence from the Residential Real-Estate Market, Management Science 61 (9), 2220–2240.
• Ben-David, Itzhak, Michael Drake, and Darren Roulstone, 2015, Acquirer Valuation and Acquisition Decisions: Identifying Mispricing Using Short Interest, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis 50 (1–2), 1–32, Lead Article.
• Agarwal, Sumit, Gene Amromin, Itzhak Ben-David, Souphala Chomsisengphet, and Douglas Evanoff, 2015, Financial Literacy and Financial Planning: Evidence from India, Journal of Housing Economics 27, 4–21.
  • Media: Wall Street Journal

• Agarwal, Sumit, Gene Amromin, Itzhak Ben-David, Souphala Chomsisengphet, and Douglas Evanoff, 2014, Predatory Lending and the Subprime Crisis, Journal of Financial Economics113, 29–52.

  Ben-David, Itzhak, John Graham, Cam Harvey, 2013, Managerial Miscalibration, Quarterly Journal of Economics 128 (4), 1547–1584.

• Media:
  • CFO.com, CFO.com, New York Times (Richard Thaler), Scientific American, Economico Valor, New Yorker, VoxEU
  • Featured in Daniel Kahneman’s book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, 2011. Discussed in Daniel Kahneman’s interview (mins 25–28), The Motley Fool, 28 June 2013

• Ben-David, Itzhak, Francesco Franzoni, Augustin Landier, and Rabih Moussawi, 2013, Do Hedge Funds Manipulate Stock Prices? Journal of Finance 68 (6), 2383–2434.

• Media: Wall Street Journal, Wall Street Journal, Wall Street Journal, Consumer Affairs, Jornal de Negócios

• Ben-David, Itzhak, and David Hirshleifer, 2012, Are Investors Really Reluctant to Realize their Losses? Trading Responses to Past Returns and the Disposition Effect, Review of Financial Studies 25 (8), 2485–2532.

  • Media: CNBC

• Ben-David, Itzhak, 2011, Financial Constraints and Inflated Home Prices during the Real-Estate Boom, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 3 (3), 55–87.

• Media:
  • New York Times Magazine (Freakonomics), Freakonomics blog, Freakonomics followup blog, Huffington Post.
  • Featured in Luigi Zingales’ AFA Presidential Address “Does Finance Benefit Society” (mins 32-34), January 4, 2015, Zingales’ Book (Capitalism for the People), Zingales’ interview.
• Awards:
  • Prize winner at BSI Gamma Foundation, Real Estate, 2008
  • Prize winner at 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 Proceedings 100 (2), 495–500.

  Ben-David, Itzhak, Francesco Franzoni, and Rabih Moussawi, 2012, Hedge Fund Stock Trading during the Financial Crisis of 2007-2009, Review of Financial Studies 25 (1), 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.

Book Chapters and Other Publications

• Agarwal, Sumit, Gene Amromin, Itzhak Ben-David, Souphala Chomsisengphet, and Douglas Evanoff, 2017, Mitigating Investor Losses due to Mortgage Defaults: Lessons from Global Financial Crisis, in Michael Haliassos, Franklin Allen, Katja Langenbucher, and Esther Faia, eds., European Capital Markets Union, MIT Press.

  • Media: Washington Post

• Ben-David, Itzhak, and Spencer Couts, 2016, Unlikely Outcome, Case Study, The Ohio State University Center for Real Estate.

• Ben-David, Itzhak, and Chang Hwa Oh, 2015, Gangnam Style: A Battle between Two Giants over a Building Site, Case Study, The Ohio State University Center for Real Estate.

• Agarwal, Sumit, Gene Amromin, Itzhak Ben-David, Souphala Chomsisengphet, and Douglas Evanoff, 2011, 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, UK: 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.

Working Papers

The Financial Crisis

• 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, Banks' Internal Capital Markets and Deposit Rates, 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
• Ben-David, Itzhak and Agarwal, Sumit, Do Loan Officers’ Incentives Lead to Lax Lending Standards?
• Ben-David, Itzhak, Agarwal, Sumit, Gene Amromin, Souphala Chomsisengphet, Tomasz Piskorski, and Amit Seru, Policy Intervention in Debt Renegotiation: Evidence from the Home Affordable Modification Program
• Ben-David, Itzhak, Baugh, Brian, and Hoonsuk Park, The “Amazon Tax”, Coming soon
• Ben-David, Itzhak, Baugh, Brian, and Hoonsuk Park, Disentangling Financial Constraints, Precautionary Savings, and Myopia: Household Behavior Surrounding Federal Tax Returns

Limits-to-Arbitrage

• Ben-David, Itzhak, Francesco A. Franzoni, and Rabih Moussawi, Do ETFs Increase Volatility?
• 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