Financing the Future: Market-Based Innovations for Growth

Franklin Allen Glenn Yago Financing the Future: Market-Based Innovations for Growth Franklin Allen and Glenn Yago Tuesday, August 3, 2010 | 4:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. Milken Institute 1250 Fourth Street Santa Monica Map

Financial innovations can transform ideas into new technologies, industries and jobs. They can expedite medical cures, spark growth in the developing world, clean up the environment and help food assistance groups spend their money more efficiently. But if complex financial structures are used recklessly - as they were before the recent crisis - the consequences can be severe. Franklin Allen and Glenn Yago, authors of Financing the Future: Market-Based Innovations for Growth, will discuss financial innovations as well as their views on the economic recovery and regulatory reform at a Forum scheduled for August 3 at the Institute. In Financing the Future, Allen and Yago trace the evolution of financial innovations and how they have advanced a variety of fields. The authors argue that the financial crisis offers a cautionary tale, but shouldn't be used as an opportunity to quash innovation altogether. They identify crucial differences between genuinely useful innovations and instruments designed merely to hide risk and generate quick profits. Allen is the Nippon Life Professor of Finance and a professor of economics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he has been on the faculty since 1980. The co-director of the Wharton Financial Institutions Center, he is also executive editor of the Review of Financial Studies. Yago is the executive director of financial research at the Milken Institute. He is the co-author of several books, including The Rise and Fall of the U.S. Mortgage and Credit Markets. Financing the Future will be for sale at the Forum, and the authors will sign copies.