Sean Higgins
Associate Professor of Finance
Sean Higgins is an Associate Professor of Finance at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. His research studies how technology reduces frictions in payments markets and consumer financial markets, and the effects of reducing these frictions on households and small firms in emerging economies. He holds a PhD in Economics, and prior to joining Kellogg, he was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
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B.S., 2011, Economics, Tulane University
Ph.D., 2016, Economics, Tulane University
Post-Doctoral, 2019, University of California, Berkeley -
Assistant Professor of Finance, Finance, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2020-present
Post-Doctoral Fellow in Household Finance, National Bureau of Economic Research, 2019-2020 -
Visiting Scholar, Philadelphia Federal Reserve, 2020
Visiting Researcher, Banco de México (Central Bank of Mexico), 2017
Visiting Scholar, UC Berkeley, 2014-2015
Visiting Scholar, El Colegio de México, 2013-2014 -
Poets&Quants Best 40-Under-40 MBA Professor, Poets&Quants
Sidney J. Levy Teaching Award
Best Paper Award, GSU-RFS FinTech Conference
PBCSF Award for the Best Paper in Fintech, Western Finance Association
Best Paper in Corporate Finance, SFS Cavalcade North America
Schloss Prize for Excellence in Economic Research
Fulbright Scholar to Mexico -
Associate Editor, Review of Finance, 2024
Field Study (FINC-498-0)
Field Studies include those opportunities outside of the regular curriculum in which a student is working with an outside company or non-profit organization to address a real-world business challenge for course credit under the oversight of a faculty member.
Entrepreneurial Finance and Venture Capital (FINC-445-0)
This course uses the case method, alongside selected lectures and guest speakers, to study entrepreneurial finance and venture capital decision focusing on the funding decisions of start-ups (fast growing entrepreneurial firms). The goal is to understand how entrepreneurs can raise funds and how venture capital partnerships choose, value, structure, fund, and manage their investments. The course covers all stages of the financing process, from startup to exit, structuring multi-staged financings, and valuing entrepreneurial ventures. In addition, the course provides insight into how venture capital partnerships work, why they take the forms they do, and where the crucial problems and opportunities for innovation exist. Consideration is given to the incentives faced by venture capital partnerships and the investors in those partnerships, and how to properly make financing decisions and negotiate contractual terms. The course emphasizes high growth start-ups searching for funding in the US and venture capital funding as opposed to more traditional entrepreneurial and family firms operating globally (see FINC945 for these topics) and to Leveraged Buyouts (see FINC-448 for LBOs). The course is aimed primarily at people who may be involved in an entrepreneurial venture at some point in their careers, those interested in pursuing venture capital careers, or those interested in asset management. The coursework will consist of case study write-ups as well as a take-home final exam.
Field Study (ENTR-498-0)
Field Studies include those opportunities outside of the regular curriculum in which a student is working with an outside company or non-profit organization to address a real-world business challenge for course credit under the oversight of a faculty member.
