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Jonathan Cohn

Associate Professor

Department:     Finance

Additional Titles:     Program Director of the Financial Analyst Program; Director of Hicks, Muse, Tate and Furst (HMTF) Center for Private Equity Finance

Research Areas:     Corporate Governance, Mutual Funds, Taxation - Corporate, Taxation - Individual

Jonathan Cohn is an associate professor of finance for The University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business, teaching courses in corporate finance and financial markets. Cohn also serves as academic director of the UT Austin Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst Center for Private Equity Finance and as director of the BBA Financial Analyst Program.

Prior to joining McCombs, Cohn worked as a litigation consultant for the U.S. Department of Justice and began his research career in the field of finance. Because of his work on private equity, workplace safety, investor activism, taxation, litigation, and economics, Cohn has been a discussant to numerous papers for organizations including the American Finance Association, Western Finance Association, European Finance Association, UNC/Duke Corporate Finance Conference, Michigan Mitsui Symposium, and UBC Winter Conference. He is an associate editor for the Review of Finance and Review of Corporate Finance Studies and has reviewed papers for The Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, and Journal of Financial Economics. He has published papers in The Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Economics, Management Science, and the Review of Finance.

Cohn earned a bachelor’s in management from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis. He holds a Ph.D. in finance from the University of Michigan.

ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP & AWARDS

2013-14

MBA Applause Award, The University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business

2011

MBA Applause Award, The University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business

Publications

Jonathan B. Cohn, Zack Liu, and Malcolm I. Wardlaw. 2022. Count (and Count-like) Data in Finance. Journal of Financial Economics 146(2): 529-551.

Sources of Value Creation in Private Equity Buyouts of Private Firms. By: Jonathan B Cohn; Edith S. Hotchkiss,  Erin M. Towery. Review of Finance. Mar2022, Vol. 26 Issue 2, p257-285.

Jonathan Cohn, Nicole Nestoriak, and Malcolm Wardlaw. 2021. Private Equity Buyouts and Workplace Safety. Review of Financial Studies34(10), 4832-4875.

 

Jonathan Cohn, Umit G. Gurun, and Rabih Moussawi. 2020. A Project-level Analysis of Value Creation in Firms. Financial Management 49(2), 423-446.

 

Jonathan Cohn and Malcolm I. Wardlaw. 2016. Financing Constraints and Workplace Safety. Journal of Finance 71(5), 2017-2058.

 

Jonathan Cohn, Stuart L. Gillan, and Jay C. Hartzell. 2016. On Enhancing Shareholder Control: A (Dodd-) Frank Assessment of Proxy Access. Journal of Finance 71(4), 1623-1668.

 

David A. Becher, Jonathan Cohn, and Jennifer L. Juergens. 2015. Do Stock Analysts Influence Merger Completion? An Examination of Postmerger Announcement Recommendations. Management Science 61(10), 2430-2448.

 

Jonathan Cohn, Lillian F Mills, and Erin M. Towery. 2014. The Evolution of Capital Structure and Operating Performance After Leveraged Buyouts: Evidence from U.S. Corporate Tax Returns. Journal of Financial Economics 111(2), 469-494.

 

Jonathan Cohn and Uday Rajan. 2013. Optimal Corporate Governance in the Presence of an Activist Investor. Review of Financial Studies 26(4), 985-1020.