Lawrence M v D Schloss Economics Prize

   Stefano Barbieri

2011 Recipient Stefano Barbieri

Larry Schloss, 1976 cum laude graduate from Tulane, now Chief Investment Officer of the New York City Office of Comptroller, former Chairman and CEO of the private equity firm Diamond Castle Holdings, and member of Tulane’s Board, has endowed a prize for Excellence in Economics. “The Schloss Prize is to be offered to outstanding full professors, associate professors or assistant professors or a graduate student or undergraduate student who does outstanding work in the Department of Economics.”

Mr. Schloss has had a distinguished career in the financial services industry. Following his 1976 graduation from Tulane, he went on to earn an MBA from the Wharton School in 1978. He then joined Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ) in 1978 as an investment banker focused on leveraged finance and energy, and began investing DLJ capital when the firm began its dedicated leveraged buyout principal investing activities in 1985. Prior to the acquisition of DLJ by Credit Suisse, Mr. Schloss spent 22 years at DLJ, and was Chairman of DLJ Merchant Banking since 1995. Under his leadership, the alternative asset investment business at DLJ grew to include $19 billion under management across various fund strategies. He was Chairman, Co-Chairman, or a member of the investment committees of each of the DLJ Merchant Banking Partners private equity funds, as well as the mezzanine funds, real estate funds, secondary funds, and funds of funds. As such, he has overseen investments in over 200 companies with total transaction value in excess of $100 billion. Also, Mr. Schloss was Global Head of CSFB Private Equity, where he was responsible for a staff of 450, including 125 investment professionals on four continents with $32 billion of alternative assets under management.

Mr. Schloss joined Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ) in 1978 as an investment banker focused on leveraged finance and energy, and began investing DLJ capital when the firm began its dedicated leveraged buyout principal investing activities in 1985.

Prior to the acquisition of DLJ by Credit Suisse, Mr. Schloss spent 22 years at DLJ and was Chairman of DLJ Merchant Banking since 1995. Under his leadership, the alternative asset investment business at DLJ grew to include $19 billion under management across various fund strategies. He was Chairman, Co-Chairman or a member of the investment committees of each of the DLJ Merchant Banking Partners private equity funds, as well as the mezzanine funds, real estate funds, secondary funds and funds of funds. As such, he has overseen investments in over 200 companies with total transaction value in excess of $100 billion.

In addition to being on the Board of Trustees of Tulane University, Mr. Schloss is a member of the New York City Police & Fire Widows’ and Children’s Benefit Fund, and has served on the boards of directors of numerous public and private companies.

The 2011 recipient of the Schloss Prize is Stefano Barbieri, who has just been awarded tenure and promotion to Associate Professor in the Department of Economics. Stefano received a B.S. in economics (summa cum laude) from Bocconi University in Milan, Italy, and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 2004. He has been at Tulane since 2004.

Stefano is a leading scholar in the application of sophisticated economic theory to public economics, especially to the formal analysis of cooperation in the face of free-riding and private information. A standard result in public economics is that individuals will typically not contribute to a public good like national defense or law enforcement because (once provided) individuals can “free-ride” on the contributions of others and still derive benefits from the public good. This free-riding is a central problem in economics, since it means that these public goods will be underprovided or not provided at all by markets. Finding ways in which individuals can be induced to contribute to such public goods has long been a major area of research for economists, and there is now a growing literature that examines the circumstances under which individuals are more or less likely to contribute to such public goods. It is in this literature where Stefano’s published and forthcoming articles have made important contributions.

As Stefano himself says, “I am interested in finding mechanisms that improve private cooperation that helps in reaching a common goal.” Stefano’s research has produced important insights about how incentives and institutions can be established and changed to induce cooperative behavior. His work is increasingly cited by others working in this growing area of research, eliciting such comments from outside scholars as:

• “Stefano has advanced this study by as much as anyone”
• “…he demonstrates incredible skill and creativity in problem solving and an exceptionally deep understanding of game theoretic methodology”
• “His research is very highly regarded and influential, and his reputation is growing”
• “In short, the papers that Professor Barbieri has published are of high quality, and in my view are likely to be cited as genuine developments in our understanding of important aspects of collection action problems”
• “There is no question that he has helped to move this literature forward in an important way”

Stefano has been increasingly successful in his research. Just in the last year he has had three articles published in leading journals in economics, all on different aspects of voluntary contributions. These papers include:

· "Communication and Early Contributions," Journal of Public Economic Theory

· "Threshold Uncertainty in the Private-Information Subscription Game," Journal of Public Economics

· "Profit-Maximizing Sale of a Discrete Public Good via the Subscription Game in Private-Information Environments," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics

And over the last three years Stefano has published six papers in top journals, and he has several more currently under review. More details on Stefano’s research (and other) activities can be found on his Tulane website, at https://greenspace.tulane.edu/sbarbier/ .

The Department of Economics is very grateful to Larry Schloss for his generous and ongoing support, which has made recognition of Stefano’s accomplishments possible.

Former recipients

2009: Marco Castaneda

2010: Jay Shimshack