Prof. Shum Nolan’s main area of research focuses on the relationship between financial and real decisions. This relationship is an important consideration for firms, as well as for households. At the firm level, she has studied the choice of capital structure and its effects on a firm’s investment, and vice versa. At the household level, she has studied the impact of entrepreneurial and real estate investments on household portfolio choice. In recent years, Prof. Shum Nolan has also been studying the performance and growth of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and their roles in investors’ portfolios, as well as their impact on financial markets. Prof. Shum Nolan’s research has appeared in the Journal of Finance, Journal of Monetary Economics, Review of Finance, and Journal of Banking and Finance, among others. She has also published in the areas of pensions, political events and financial markets, and alternative assets, such as art as an investment (focusing on modern art). She was the winner of the CFA Toronto Society-Hillsdale Investment Management Research Award in 2011, and again in 2019.

I was interested because I wanted to broaden the audience for my research. The two awards that I received are validation that my research addresses important questions that are relevant to practitioners. I would definitely encourage colleagues to submit their papers to this competition. It is prestigious and it brings academics and practitioners together to advance the field.

— Pauline M. Shum Nolan, PHD, 2019 Hillsdale Investment Management Research Award Winner