{"id":21209,"date":"2025-09-09T14:24:04","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T12:24:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fdef-en\/?post_type=events&#038;p=21209"},"modified":"2025-09-09T14:27:41","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T12:27:41","slug":"df-lunch-seminar-with-prof-asaf-bernstein-university-of-colorado","status":"publish","type":"events","link":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fdef-en\/events\/df-lunch-seminar-with-prof-asaf-bernstein-university-of-colorado\/","title":{"rendered":"DF Lunch Seminar with Prof. Asaf Bernstein (University of Colorado)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"py-0 wp-block-unilux-blocks-free-section section\"><div class=\"container xl:max-w-screen-xl\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-unilux-blocks-custom-buttons btn-list\"><li class=\"wp-block-unilux-blocks-custom-button\"    aria-disabled=\"false\"\n    >\n    <a\n        role=\"link\"\n        aria-disabled=\"false\"\n                    href=\"https:\/\/www.eventbrite.fr\/e\/df-lunch-seminar-with-prof-asaf-bernstein-university-of-colorado-registration-1678687622869?aff=oddtdtcreator\"\n                target=\"_blank\"\n        class=\"btn btn--primary\"\n            >Register<\/a>\n<\/li>\n\n\n<li class=\"wp-block-unilux-blocks-custom-button\"    aria-disabled=\"false\"\n    >\n    <a\n        role=\"link\"\n        aria-disabled=\"false\"\n                    href=\"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fdef-en\/events\/df-lunch-seminar-with-prof-asaf-bernstein-university-of-colorado\/calendar\"\n                target=\"_self\"\n        class=\"btn btn--secondary\"\n            >Add to calendar<\/a>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-unilux-blocks-spacer is-spacer-size-sm\"><\/div>\n\n\n<h4 class=\"has-text-align-left wp-block-unilux-blocks-heading\"        id=\"the-costs-of-curbing-speculation-evidence-from-the-establishment-of-investment-grade\"\n    >\n&#8220;The Costs of Curbing Speculation: Evidence from the Establishment of &#8220;Investment Grade&#8221;&#8221;<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>With the Lunch Seminar series, the Department of Finance is bringing eminent and up-and-coming researchers from around the world to Luxembourg.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-unilux-blocks-spacer is-spacer-size-sm\"><\/div>\n\n\n<h4 class=\"has-text-align-left wp-block-unilux-blocks-heading\"        id=\"abstract\"\n    >\nAbstract<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Severe economic distress that provokes regulators to curb speculation by financial institutions may have unintended costs for non-financial firms. In 1936 the Comptroller of the Currency unexpectedly announced just such a regulation, stating that supervised banks were no longer eligible to purchase securities rated below \u201cinvestment grade\u201d. Using a differences-in-differences design I provide the first evidence on the costs of the establishment of federal rating-based investment restrictions. I find a sudden persistent rise in speculative bond yields after the announcement, even comparing bonds within the same firm, and a substantial decline in equity value for firms reliant on external speculative debt financing. Anecdotal and empirical evidence suggests that effects of the regulation were exacerbated by the reliance on ratings. Firms reduced the size of their debt issuances in order to \u201cgame\u201d the ratings, leading to reduced investment and slower asset growth in subsequent years. Since these restrictions were broad, affecting almost half of even publicly traded corporate bonds, they likely had important macroeconomic implications and may have even played a role in the size of the 1937-1938 recession.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-unilux-blocks-spacer is-spacer-size-sm\"><\/div>\n\n\n<h4 class=\"has-text-align-left wp-block-unilux-blocks-heading\"        id=\"about-the-speaker\"\n    >\nAbout the speaker<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/citations?user=mwXs-vMAAAAJ&amp;hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Asaf Bernstein<\/a> is an associate professor of finance at the University of Colorado at Boulder&#8217;s Leeds School of Business and a Faculty Research Fellow in the National Bureau of Economic Research.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-unilux-blocks-spacer is-spacer-size-sm\"><\/div>\n\n\n<h4 class=\"has-text-align-left wp-block-unilux-blocks-heading\"        id=\"language\"\n    >\nLanguage<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is a free event. Registration is mandatory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cold lunches are provided to registered participants only.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":85,"featured_media":19172,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"featured_image_focal_point":{"x":0,"y":0.32},"show_featured_caption":false,"ulux_newsletter_groups":"","uluxPostTitle":"","uluxPrePostTitle":"","_trash_the_other_posts":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"event_start_date":"2025-10-02 12:30:00","event_end_date":"2025-10-02 13:45:00","event_speaker_name":"Prof. Asaf Bernstein","event_speaker_link":"","event_is_online":false,"event_location":"Weicker Building","event_street":"4 rue Alphonse Weicker","event_location_link":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/en\/about\/campuses\/weicker-building\/","event_zip_code":"2721","event_city":"Luxembourg","event_country":"Luxembourg"},"events-topic":[301],"events-type":[323,322,315],"organisation":[116,101],"authorship":[85],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v22.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>DF Lunch Seminar: Prof. Asaf Bernstein on Investment Grade Regulation and Speculation \u2013 University of Luxembourg<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discover the unintended costs of financial regulation at the DF Lunch Seminar with Prof. Asaf Bernstein (University of Colorado). Learn how the 1936 investment grade rule impacted corporate debt, equity value, and macroeconomic trends. Hosted by the University of Luxembourg\u2019s Department of Finance.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fdef-en\/events\/df-lunch-seminar-with-prof-asaf-bernstein-university-of-colorado\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"DF Lunch Seminar with Prof. Asaf Bernstein (University of Colorado)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Discover the unintended costs of financial regulation at the DF Lunch Seminar with Prof. Asaf Bernstein (University of Colorado). Learn how the 1936 investment grade rule impacted corporate debt, equity value, and macroeconomic trends. Hosted by the University of Luxembourg\u2019s Department of Finance.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fdef-en\/events\/df-lunch-seminar-with-prof-asaf-bernstein-university-of-colorado\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FDEF EN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uni.FDEF.lu\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-09T12:27:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/04\/AdobeStock_1073009376-scaled.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1463\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fdef-en\/events\/df-lunch-seminar-with-prof-asaf-bernstein-university-of-colorado\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fdef-en\/events\/df-lunch-seminar-with-prof-asaf-bernstein-university-of-colorado\/\",\"name\":\"DF Lunch Seminar: Prof. Asaf Bernstein on Investment Grade Regulation and Speculation \u2013 University of Luxembourg\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fdef-en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fdef-en\/events\/df-lunch-seminar-with-prof-asaf-bernstein-university-of-colorado\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fdef-en\/events\/df-lunch-seminar-with-prof-asaf-bernstein-university-of-colorado\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/04\/AdobeStock_1073009376-scaled.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-09T12:24:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-09T12:27:41+00:00\",\"description\":\"Discover the unintended costs of financial regulation at the DF Lunch Seminar with Prof. Asaf Bernstein (University of Colorado). 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