Lenore Palladino

Lenore Palladino is a Research Fellow at PERI and Assistant Professor of Economics and Public Policy at UMass Amherst. She holds a Ph.D. from the New School University in Economics and a J.D. from Fordham Law School. She is also a Contributing Editor at the Boston Review and a Fellow at the Rutgers Institute for Employee Ownership.

Lenore’s research centers on corporate power, stakeholder corporations, shareholder primacy, and the relationship between corporate governance and the labor market. She has also written on financial transaction taxes, employee ownership, and the rise of finch. She has published in the Yale Journal of Regulation and Fordham Journal of Corporate and Financial Law, as well as the Financial Times and State Tax Notes. Lenore frequently works with policymakers, media and advocates on corporate and financial policy. Recent working papers include “The Economic Argument for Stakeholder Corporations” and “Do Corporate Insiders use Stock Buybacks for Personal Gain?” 


Most recently Lenore was Senior Economist and Policy Counsel at the Roosevelt Institute, and a Lecturer in Economics at Smith College. She was previously Vice President for Advocacy at Demos and a Lecturer in Economics at New York University. In the first stage of her career she was Campaign Director at MoveOn, a lead organizer with the labor union CSEA-AFSCME, and National Director of United Students Against Sweatshops.

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Professional Experience: 

• Assistant Professor of Economics and Public Policy, University of Massachusetts Amherst September 2019- Present.
• Senior Economist & Policy Counsel, Roosevelt Institute, New York, NY February 2016- August 2019.
• Lecturer, Smith College, Department of Economics, Northampton, MA July 2015- May 2019.
• Of Counsel, Law Firm of Jason Wiener p.c. Northampton, MA August 2017- May 2019.
• Vice President, Policy & Outreach, Demos, New York, NY September 2013-October 2015.
• Director of Strategy, MoveOn.org, New York, NY November 2012-April 2013; Organizing Director, December 2011- November 2012

Professional Activities: 

Lenore’s research centers on corporate power, stakeholder corporations, shareholder primacy, and the relationship between corporate governance and the labor market. She has also written on financial transaction taxes, employee ownership, and the rise of fintech. She has published in the Yale Journal of Regulation and Fordham Journal of Corporate and Financial Law, as well as the Financial Times and State Tax Notes. Lenore frequently works with policymakers, media and advocates on corporate and financial policy. Recent working papers include “The Economic Argument for Stakeholder Corporations” and “Do Corporate Insiders use Stock Buybacks for Personal Gain?” Lenore’s papers can be found here: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1800125 Lenore has testified on the impacts of stock buybacks before the House Financial Services committee. 

Selected Publications: 

• 2020   Palladino, L. “Do Corporate Insiders use Stock Buybacks for Personal Gain?” International Review of Applied Economics. (Vol. forthcoming).
• 2019    Invited Presenter, “Stock Buybacks: Evidence & Policy;” 2019 Corporate Governance Roundtable, Harvard Law School Program on Corporate Governance. November 6.  
• 2019    Invited Presenter, “Worker Representation on Corporate Boards;” Corporate Governance and Strategies for Finance in the Digital Era, Rhodes Center for International Economics and Finance, Brown University. November 1.  
• 2019    Invited Presenter, “Testimony on Examining Corporate Priorities: The Impact of Stock Buybacks on Workers, Communities, and Investors;” U.S, Congress Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Investors, and Entrepreneurship, House Financial Services Committee. October 17.
• 2019    “The Need for Regulation of Small Business Fintech Lending.” Eastern Economics Association Conference, March 2nd.
• 2019.   “Shareholder Primacy and Employees.” Allied Social Sciences Associations Annual Conference, January 4.
• 2018.   “Towards Stakeholder Corporate Governance & Ownership.” Money as a Democratic Medium conference, Harvard Law School. December 14.
• 2018    “The Effects of Shareholder Primacy on Employees.” Political Economy Workshop, UMass Economics Department. December 4.
• 2018    “Towards Accountable Capitalism.” Keynote Presentation at Mayor’s Office for Pension Investment, New York City. October 2.
• 2018    “Shareholder Primacy and Worker Prosperity: A Broken Link.” Presentation at Union for Radical Political Economy 50th Anniversary Conference, September 28.
• 2018    “Why Stock Buybacks Harm Workers,” Keynote Speech at the Committee for Workers’ Capital        Conference, September 11th.
• 2018    “Democratizing Investment”, Conference Presentation at Democratizing Finance at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. July.
• 2018    “Corporate Financialization and Worker Prosperity,” Presentation at the Association for the      Promotion of Political Economy and the Law conference (APPEAL), June.
• 2017    “Why Academics Should Run for Office,” Presentation at the Association for the Promotion of Political Economy and the Law conference (APPEAL), June.
• 2017    “Why Democratize Finance?” Presentation at the Beyster Symposium for Employee Ownership at Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, January.

Lenore Palladino website