Christine Parlour
Professor | Sylvan C. Coleman Chair in Finance and Accounting | Distinguished Teaching Fellow | Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA, UNITED STATES
Areas of Expertise (6)
Fintech
Digital Payments
Credit Markets
Finance
Microstructure
Banking
About
Christine A. Parlour is the Sylvan C. Coleman Chair of Finance and Accounting at Berkeley Haas. Most of her work is in institutionally complex areas, such as market microstructure and banking. Her current work focuses on changes in the payments system and the effects on bank balance sheets. She has written for major finance and economics journals. She has been on the Nasdaq Economic Advisory Board and is currently on the steering committee for the New Special Study of Securities Markets.
Education (3)
Queen’s University at Kingston: PhD, Economics
Queen’s University at Kingston: MA, Economics
University of Ottawa: BSocSci
Links (4)
Honors & Awards (5)
Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching
PhD Program 2015
Goldman Sachs Asset Management Quant Award for Best Paper in Review of Finance, “Rationing in IPOs”
2005
WFA NYSE Best Equity Trading Paper, “Equilibrium in a Dynamic Limit Order Market”
2004
BP America Research Chair
2002 – 2003
GSIA “Excellence in the Classroom” Teaching Award
2000
Selected External Service & Affiliations (2)
- Co-Editor: Review of Finance
- Consulting: Morgan Stanley (Auctions) Nasdaq Economic Advisory Board
Positions Held (1)
At Haas since 2005
2012 – present, Sylvan C. Coleman Chair in Finance and Accounting 2010 – 2011, Barbara and Gerson Bakar Faculty Fellow 2006 – 2012, Associate Professor of Finance, Haas School of Business 2005 – 2006, Assistant Professor of Finance, Haas School of Business 2003 – 2006, Associate Professor of Finance, Carnegie Mellon University 2000 – 2001, Visiting Economist, S.E.C. 1995 – 2002, Assistant Professor of Finance, Carnegie Mellon University
Media Appearances (12)
Robinhood’s CEO is a dogecoin fanboy. What about his dog of a company?
Protocol online
2022-04-18
Cryptocurrency Dogecoin is a tough sell that may never pan out. Distinguished Teaching Fellow Professor Christine Parlour, the Sylvan C. Coleman Chair in Finance and Accounting, said credit cards remain popular and convenient. And there’s really no “strong economic motive for merchants to move away from credit cards to something like dogecoin,” she added.
Christine Parlour Discusses How Investors in Crypto Can Stay Safe
Live Bitcoin News online
2021-12-29
Prof. Christine Parlour, the Sylvan C. Coleman Chair in Finance and Accounting, said that investors need to be careful, as specific financial rules don't exist for crypto. “Various regulatory agencies ensure that traditional equity markets are transparent, and there are specific rules governing the trading process. This regulatory system is not fully in place for crypto, either on the corporate side or on the trading side,” she said.
Early Theranos investor will sell his stock certificate in the company as NFT, banking on Elizabeth Holmes’ fame
CNBC
2021-12-16
An early Theranos investor is selling his Series A stock certificate for 500,000 shares—as an NFT. “Art is in the eye of the beholder,” said Prof. Christine Parlour, the Sylvan C. Coleman Chair in Finance and Accounting. “There’s a huge power in these NFTs. With Elizabeth Holmes, everyone knows the story so it’s probably very personal for a lot of people and that adds a sort of sentimental value.”
I teach cryptocurrency at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. Here are 3 things every new crypto investor needs to know
MarketWatch online
2021-12-12
Distinguished Teaching Fellow Prof. Christine Parlour, the Sylvan C. Coleman Chair in Finance and Accounting, has three recommendations for new investors. First, don’t assume you’re investing in a safe space. Second, be careful. Third, don’t buy the hype on every crypto innovation that comes out. “Many of the business models are new and untested and “because of this, some crypto-backed ventures will fail,” she said.
The crypto industry is plotting an end run around the SEC
Protocol online
2021-11-19
Big crypto players like Coinbase and Ripple have proposed sidelining the SEC or finding another agency to regulate the industry. While that’s unlikely to happen, they do have a point, said Distinguished Teaching Fellow Prof. Christine Parlour, Sylvan C. Coleman Chair in Finance and Accounting. "The SEC has deep expertise in securities and trading, but the rules that they have historically implemented often don't make sense for cryptocurrencies," she said.
Is Cryptocurrency a Good Investment?
The Motley Fool online
2021-10-07
Prof. Christine Parlour, the Sylvan C. Coleman Chair in Finance and Accounting, provided expert commentary to the Motley Fool. Asked what advice she would give to an investor in blockchain technology, she said "be curious but also be cautious. It is important to recognize that there is not a complete regulatory framework in this area. So, it is important to do your homework."
Litecoin's fake Walmart deal could have crypto regulators circling
Protocol online
2021-09-14
A Walmart press release announcing a "major partnership" with Litecoin sent the cryptocurrency soaring early Monday, before it quickly plunged again after the report was exposed as fake news. Distinguished Teaching Fellow Prof. Christine Parlour, the Sylvan C. Coleman Chair in Finance and Accounting, said the announcement was "clearly fishy." "Events like these clearly will make regulators pay more attention to what is happening in crypto," she said.
Mastercard is saying goodbye to the magnetic stripe
Marketplace
2021-08-18
Mastercard has announced it will to do away with the magnetic stripe on the back of its cards by 2033, replacing it permanently with the chip and touchless tap. It’s all about security. “The mag stripe just contains that secret information, which is your card number, your banking information. So a person can’t see it, but a machine can see it,” said Prof. Christine Parlour, the Sylvan C. Coleman Chair in Finance and Accounting.
Why The IRS May Take It Easy On Crypto
Protocol online
2021-08-17
Comprehensive crypto regulation is far from settled. But broad financial reform based on regulation can be challenging, said Distinguished Teaching Fellow Prof. Christine Parlour, the Sylvan C. Coleman Chair in Finance and Accounting. She said the crypto world is new and unfamiliar to lawmakers and regulators and "the old labels do not apply.”
Investors are hankering for crypto. Wealth managers are swooping in.
Protocol online
2021-07-13
The crypto market, though notorious for wild swings, is becoming increasingly attractive to mainstream investors and the wealth managers who cater to them, including big firms. Prof. Christine Parlour, the Sylvan C. Coleman Chair in Finance and Accounting, said the collection of accurate, high-frequency pricing data in the crypto market has made it easier for institutions to figure out portfolios and trading strategies.
Top US Business Schools Are Racing to Incorporate Blockchain
CoinDesk online
2017-04-17
“Some of the aspects of the technological innovation that we're seeing have very, very different patterns and require somewhat different logic from the management side than traditional brick-and-mortar type businesses,” said Christine Parlour, chair of finance and accounting at the school.
‘On Like Donkey Kong’: How a Dubious Super PAC Boosted a Questionable Penny Stock
ProPublica online
2016-05-16
Christine Parlour, a business school professor for the University of California at Berkeley, who reviewed the CrossClick filings at ProPublica’s request, said the company’s activities are “really, really, really dubious.” She said CrossClick has “absolutely no revenue and no business plan. They’re shuffling paper around.”
Selected Research Grants (4)
Carnegie–Bosch Research Grant
Carnegie Bosch Institute
1999, 2001
“Contracts and Risk Sharing”
RMI Grant
2007
COR Faculty Research Grant
UC Berkeley
2005
“Valuing an LNG Supply Chain"
CART Research Grant
2004
Selected Papers & Publications (6)
Competition, Managerial Slack and Corporate Governance
Review of Corporate Finance Studies
Christine Parlour, Limor Golan and Uday Rajan
2015
Markup Cycles, Dynamic Misallocation and Amplification
Journal of Economic Theory
Christine Parlour, Marcus M. Opp, and Johan Walden
2014
Laying Off Credit Risk: Loan Sales versus Credit Default Swaps
Journal of Financial Economics
Christine Parlour and Andrew Winton
2013
Financial Flexibility, Bank Capital Flows and Asset Prices
Journal of Finance
Christine Parlour
2012
Hedging Labor Income Risk
Journal of Financial Economics
Christine Parlour, S. Betermier, T. Jansson, and J. Walden
2012
Signaling Quality via Queues
Management Science
Christine Parlour, Laurens G. Debo, and Uday Rajan
2011
Social