Center's Ph.D. Fellows

2005-06 Ph.D. Fellows

Nydia MacGregor is a doctoral student in the Organizational Behavior and Industrial Relations (OBIR) program at the Haas School of Business. With a B.A. in European History from UC Santa Cruz and an MBA from UC Davis, her educational background is broad and varied. Before pursuing her doctoral degree, she spent several years working for growing retail food establishments, Jamba Juice and Noah's NY Bagels. She became intrigued with the conflicts, successes, and competitive environments among seemingly responsible "chain" businesses, local stores, and the localities in which they operated. Nydia's broader interests therefore are in "the ecological" aspects of competition, trying to understand why firms survive or fail within a specific geographic boundary. Currently she is studying the effects of the opening of national retail chain stores (often referred to as "Big Box") on the survival of independent (or "Mom and Pop") stores. The results of this research will inform both corporations and communities and help define the meaning of corporate social responsibility on a community level.

Jing Xu is a doctoral student in the Finance program at the Haas School of Business. Prior to Haas, Jing studied in the Ph.D. program in statistics at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her work experience in China involves economic consulting for the World Bank Group. Jing's dissertation seeks to understand the fee structure in the mutual fund industry. She argues that managers use front load to signal their ability, and the back loads to screen the investors who exhibit different sensitivities in mobilizing their capital. The most salient phenomenon is the inertia of investors to redeem their shares in spite of persistent poor performance of the funds in the past. Part of her study is particularly aligned with the research agenda of the Center in addressing the behavior of investors who select socially responsible mutual funds. In contrast to the conventional wisdom, empirical evidence suggests that those investors are more sensitive towards performance. This result can be explained by: (1) more sophisticated investors understand the prospects of the socially screened mutual funds, (2) different preference structures among different investors with the socially responsible investors caring about fairness and responsibility. She also finds evidence that increased flow performance sensitivity reflects learning about the investment strategies of the socially responsible mutual funds.

2004-05 Ph.D. Fellows

Vinit M. Desai is a doctoral student and researcher in Organizational Behavior and Industrial Relations (OBIR) at the Haas School of Business. His research interests include organizational learning, decision-making, crisis management, and the study of organizations in which error can have catastrophic consequences. He examines organizations that operate with hazardous technologies yet experience extremely low error rates, and his work spans various industries including space exploration, healthcare, telecommunications, naval aviation, and natural gas. Vinit has worked in both the private and public sectors.

Erika Henik is a doctoral student in Organizational Behavior and Industrial Relations (OBIR) at the Haas School of Business. Her work focuses on dissent and justice within organizations. Specifically, she studies factors that influence whistle-blowing and perceptions of whistle-blowers, as well as the effects of redress following an unfairness at work. Before coming to Haas, Erika worked for 10 years as an equity research analyst and department manager at boutique investment banks.

Michael W. Toffel finished his Ph.D. at the Haas School of Business in 2005 and is now completing post-doctoral work at the Haas School of Business. His research focuses on environmental strategy and policy. He received an MBA and Master's in Environmental Management from Yale University and has served as the Director of Environment, Health and Safety for Jebsen & Jessen (SEA)'s operations throughout Southeast Asia, and has been a consultant for Arthur Andersen, Arthur D. Little, Xerox, Motorola, and Hewlett-Packard. His research has been published in journals including California Management Review, Journal of Industrial Ecology, Environmental Science and Technology, Corporate Environmental Strategy, and Business Strategy and the Environment.

2003-04 Ph.D. Fellows

Shimon Kogan completed his Ph.D. at the Haas School of Business in 2005 and is now an Assistant Professor of Finance at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business.

Margaret Ormiston is a Ph.D. candidate at the Haas School of Business.

Elaine Wong completed her Ph.D. at the Haas School of Business in 2005 and is now an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Northwestern University.