Victor Stango
Associate Professor of Management
Research Expertise: Consumer and firm behavior in banking markets, the design of sound public policy in banking
Associate Professor Victor Stango’s current research focuses on household financial decision making over both short- and long-term time horizons. His other current work, supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation, examines how information technology outsourcing affects firms and consumers in the financial services industry. Stango has also studied the credit card and ATM markets, and has a side interest in sports economics.
Stango’s work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Business Week, Newsweek and virtually every major online new source. He has appeared on “Good Morning America,” Fox News, CNBC, Bloomberg and many other news programs to discuss his work and provide expert commentary. His research has appeared in the American Economic Review, The Journal of Finance, The Review of Financial Studies and other leading academic journals. Stango is an Associate Editor of The International Journal of Industrial Organization.
Stango holds a Ph.D. in economics from UC Davis and a B.A. in economics and political science from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining the Graduate School of Management in 2008, Stango gained experience at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, the Federal Reserve Banks of Chicago and New York, and other academic institutions.
Room 3202
UC Davis GSM Household Finance Conference 2012
The third annual conference hosted by the School’s finance group focused on household finance. Organized by Professor Victor Stango, the invitation-only forum brought together top researchers to present their latest insights on consumer finances in the wake of the global financial crisis and recession. Speakers from the University of Chicago, Harvard Business School, the University of Wisconsin and the Federal Reserve Bank shared research ranging from the impact of employees choosing the default percentage on retirement fund contributions to the rising consumption among increasingly richer households inducing the non-rich to consume more. Other topics included the causes of the foreclosure crisis (borrowers and investors made decisions that were rational and logical based on overly optimistic beliefs about house prices) and the causes and consequences of home equity extraction during the recent housing boom and bust.
Can Credit Unions Compete with Payday Lenders?
Even if credit unions offered short-term loans at better interest rates and lending terms than payday lenders—and most don’t—current payday loan customers say they prefer the convenience of payday lenders, according to a new study by Associate Professor Victor Stango.
Credit Unions No Substitute for Payday Loans
Even if credit unions offered short-term loans at better interest rates and lending terms than payday lenders — and most don’t — current payday loan customers would still prefer the convenience of payday lenders, a new University of California, Davis, study suggests.
Some New Evidence on Competition in Payday Lending Markets
Contemporary Economic Policy, 2012
A critical question in the policy debate about payday lending is whether other financial institutions can plausibly provide attractive and lower‐priced substitutes for standard payday loans. In this study, Professor Victor Stango presents several new pieces of evidence addressing the question, focusing on whether credit unions, which are often held as the strongest potential competitors to payday lenders, might viably compete in the payday loan market.
Sacramento Kings Wait On City Proposal To Privatize Parking For New Arena Funding
Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a former NBA All-Star, and others are pushing a plan to auction off the city’s parking spaces to a private firm in order to collect around $200 million towards building a new arena for the Sacramento Kings. The Huffington Post asked Professor Victor Stango about the value of an investment to keep the NBA team.
Victor Stango Awards
202A Markets and the Firm
Examines the decisions of consumers, business and government, and how these players interact. This course covers a variety of topics in economics, including supply and demand, efficiency, pricing and game theory. We will also cover the use and interpretation of economic data, and the rationale and effects of government policies affecting business. Fundamental concepts such as marginal analysis, opportunity cost, economies of scale and external effects are applied to current examples, in particular in the area of information technology
Fuzzy Math, Disclosure Regulation, and Market Outcomes: Evidence from Truth-in-Lending Reform
Review of Financial Studies, 2011
In this paper, Associate Professor Victor Stango and co-author Jonathan Zinman from Dartmouth College posit that consumer lenders shroud interest rates and market “low monthly payments” to price discriminate on “fuzzy math” or “payment/interest bias”: consumers’ pervasive tendency to underestimate borrowing costs when an interest rate is not disclosed.
Behavioral Biases in Household Fiancial Decision-Making
In 2010, Associate Professor Victor Stango was awarded over $130,000 to study how behavioral biases correlate with each other in the population at large and how they interact in everyday financial decision-making.
The New Bank Fees – Lenders’ Latest Tricks
Rising minimum payments can cause borrowers to default and help generate greater fee income for issuers, says Associate Professor Victor Stango, an associate economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, who has studied the impact of the Card Act on lenders’ practices.
Tiger Woods’ Sponsors Jumping Ship
Victor Stango, assistant professor, Graduated School of Management, and Christopher Knittel, Economics professors. This article cites a December 2009 study by economics professors Christopher Knittel, associate professor, economics, follow up on their 2009 study of the economic impact of the Tiger Woods scandal. The new Stango-Knittel report finds a negative effect on celebrity endorsements in general, not just on Woods’ worth.
The New Credit-Card Tricks
Professor Victor Stango has been analyzing how the Card Act will affect consumer banking. In this article he is quoted, “Card companies are figuring out how to replace old fees with new ones. It’s a race between regulators writing ever-more-complex laws and credit-card companies setting up ever-more-complex fees.”
Greta Hsu and Victor Stango Awarded Tenure as Associate Professors
Assistant Professors Greta Hsu and Victor Stango have both received tenure and will be promoted to associate professor effective this summer.
When Star Power Hits the Rough
Financial Times article cites study by Christopher Knittel and Victor Stango, economists at the University of California, Davis, the collective loss in stock market value of all the companies that Woods endorsed was worth $5 billion – $12 billion by the middle of December.
Tiger’s Return: Can He Bring the Brands Back?
An article discussing the marketability of Tiger Woods, based on a study done by Victor Stango and Christopher Knittel, economics professors at UC Davis.
Another View: The Agency Consumers Really Need
Professor Victor Stango and Dartmouth Professor Jonathan Zinman argue that the debate over the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency should be over what the agency does, not where it is located in the government’s bureaucracy.
Three Ways to Better Manage Your Finances
Many borrowers mismanage their debt obligations. If they were a little more on top of things, they could save hundreds — even thousands — of dollars in interest and special charges. That’s what Professor Victor Stango found in his study of the credit-card and checking transactions of 917 households over a two-year period.
Tiger Woods Scandal Cost Shareholders up to $12 billion
This article cites research by Associate Professor Victor Stango in which he estimated the damage to the market value of Woods’ main sponsors caused by revelations of alleged extramarital affairs that surfaced after he was involved in a minor car accident outside his Florida home on November 27.
Tiger Woods’ Mistress Scandal Costs Shareholders of Sponsors Like Nike, Gatorade $12 billion
This article cites Associate Professor Victor Stango’s research that showed that losses related to Tiger Woods’ mistress could cost up to $12 billion to shareholders of his big-money sponsors like Nike, AT&T and Gatorade, a study revealed Monday.
Tiger Woods Scandal Cost Shareholders up to $12 Billion
(Davis, CA) — Shareholders of Nike, Gatorade and other Tiger Woods sponsors lost a collective $5 to $12 billion in the wake of the scandal involving his extramarital affairs, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Davis.
The losses are separate from – and potentially much larger than – damage to Woods’ own earnings.
Celebrity Endorsements, Firm Value and Reputation Risk: Evidence from the Tiger Woods Scandal
In this study, Professors Victor Stango and Christopher R. Knittel estimate the stock market effects of the Tiger Woods scandal on his sponsors and sponsors’ competitors. In the 10-15 trading days after the onset of the scandal, the full portfolio of sponsors lost more than two percent of market value, with losses concentrated among the core three sponsors EA, Nike and PepsiCo (Gatorade).
Bank, Credit Card Fees Can Sink Household Budget
The typical U.S. household pays $500 a year in bank and credit card fees and interest, more than half of which could be avoided through better planning, according to new research by Victor Stango, assistant professor of management at the University of California, Davis.
How to Avoid Costly Banking Fees
American Economic Review, 2009
Consumers in the United States make billions of transactions each year using cash, checks, debit cards and credit cards. How much does this cost them?