Glenn Yago

Glenn Yago is Director of Capital Studies at the Milken Institute and a leading authority on financial innovations, capital markets, emerging markets and environmental finance. Yago's work focuses on the innovative use of financial instruments to solve long-standing economic development, social and environmental challenges. His research and projects have contributed to policy innovations fostering the democratization of capital to traditionally underserved markets and entrepreneurs in the United States and around the world. Prior to joining the Institute, Yago served as a professor at the State University of New York–Stony Brook and at the City University of New York Graduate Center in the Ph.D. program in economics. He is also a visiting professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he directs the Koret–Milken Institute Fellows program, which places postgraduates in positions related to financial reform and economic development projects. He is the author of multiple books, including The Rise and Fall of the U. S. Mortgage and Credit Markets (John Wiley and Sons, 2009), Global Edge (Harvard Business School Press, 2007), Restructuring Regulation and Financial Institutions (Kluwer, 2004) and Beyond Junk Bonds (Oxford University Press, 2005). He is also the co-editor of the Milken Institute Series on Financial Innovation and Economic Growth (Springer). Yago created the Milken Institute's Capital Access Index, an annual survey measuring access to capital for entrepreneurs across countries, and co-created the Opacity Index, measuring financial risks associated with corruption, legal, enforcement, accounting and regulatory practices internationally. His research focuses on tracking changes in global capital markets and directing the Institute's series of Financial Innovations Labs to structure economic solutions. Financial Innovations Labs are credited with crafting breakthrough financial policies and programs for institutional investors, foundations, development programs and governments, addressing diverse problems that include urban revitalization, catastrophic risk, affordable housing, small business financing, water infrastructure, climate change, health care and antiquities preservation. His opinions appear regularly in The Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal. Yago earned a Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.