Leo Stanek

Leo Stanek

Postdoctoral Scholar

Research Interests/Areas of Expertise

Structural Corporate Finance, Private Equity

Subject Areas

Finance

Biography

Biography

Leo earned his PhD in Economics from the University of Minnesota in 2025. His research focuses on using structural methods to examine firms' public listing and equity issuance choices and how structural shifts in the US economy have affected those firms and investors in public markets. Leo's was featured in the AFA student session in 2025, where he presented work which asked what the consequences of the US listing gap are and found that for public investors, not much has changed for them even as fewer companies go public. This paper has motivated a follow-on research project looking at how firms which are publicly traded respond to shifts in demand with their issuances and stock buybacks. Leo also has research interests in private equity and venture capital, particularly in the healthcare sector.

Education

PhD, Economics, University of Minnesota, 2025

MA, Economics, University of Minnesota, 2021

BS, Computer Science, University of Minnesota, 2016