Publications

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Trust in Lending

June 2018 | | Working Paper
Richard Thakor and Robert C. Merton, National Bureau of Economic Research working paper w24778.

NewRetirement Podcast—Episode 11: Interview with Nobel Prize Winner Robert Merton on Fixing Retirement

July 5 2018 | Retirement Planning | Interview

Trust in Lending

June 2018 | | Paper
Richard Thakor & Robert Merton. SSRN eLibrary

2008 Financial Crisis: A Ten-Year Review

November 2018 | | Presentations
From the ARFE-MIT-NYU Conference

Trust and the Future of Finance

November 8-9 2018 | Financial Innovation | Lectures, Presentations
The financial crisis led to a loss of trust in providers, regulators, and financial innovation among consumers, Merton observes. Some have proposed technology can stand in for trust, but he says fintech cannot create trust or succeed without it. Two things, however, can substitute for trust: verification and transparency. Some forms of fintech can provide verification, but financial advice tends to be opaque rather than transparent. Merton also discusses data showing retail investors as less satisfied with cost disclosures and performance from active portfolio managers than institutional investors.