Lawrence M. Benveniste

Lawrence M. Benveniste is an American mathematician, financial strategist, and academic. He is the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Finance at the Goizueta Business School at Emory University.

Benveniste is most known for his work on dynamic economic models and initial public offerings. His research has been published in academic journals, including the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Political Economy and Econometrica.

Education Benveniste earned his B.S. in Mathematics from the University of California, Irvine in 1972, followed by his PhD in Mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1975. He then transitioned to finance following his time at the Federal Reserve. His 1989 paper, "How Investment Bankers Determine the Offer Price and Allocation of New Issues," co-authored with Paul Spindt, developed the economic foundations of bookbuilding. The model explained underpricing as the natural result of inducing early investors to share their information and sentiment during the pre-selling period. The resultant prediction that offer prices only partially adjust to demand was later established in a paper by Kathleen Hanley. In his investigation of the impact of uniform-price restrictions and allocation regulations on IPO proceeds, his 1990 study proposed that underwriters may optimize proceeds through a combination of price and allocation discrimination while considering factors such as the cost of soliciting information and adverse selection.

Selected articles Benveniste, L. M., & Scheinkman, J. A. (1979). On the differentiability of the value function in dynamic models of economics. Econometrica: Journal of the Econometric Society, 727–732. Benveniste, L. M., & Spindt, P. A. (1989). How investment bankers determine the offer price and allocation of new issues. Journal of financial Economics, 24(2), 343–361. Benveniste, L. M., & Wilhelm, W. J. (1990). A comparative analysis of IPO proceeds under alternative regulatory environments. Journal of financial economics, 28(1–2), 173–207. Benveniste, L. M., Busaba, W. Y., & Wilhelm Jr, W. J. (2002). Information externalities and the role of underwriters in primary equity markets. Journal of Financial Intermediation, 11(1), 61–86. Benveniste, L. M., Ljungqvist, A., Wilhelm Jr, W. J., & Yu, X. (2003). Evidence of information spillovers in the production of investment banking services. The Journal of Finance, 58(2), 577–608.