Rafael La Porta

Robert J. and Nancy D. Carney University Professor of Economics & Nelson Center Faculty Director

Rafael is the Robert J. and Nancy D. Carney University Professor of Economics at Brown where he teaches venture capital and finance. Prior to coming to Brown he was the Noble Foundation Professor of Finance at the Tuck School at Dartmouth. He received his PhD in economics from Harvard in 1994 and was on the Harvard faculty from that time until he joined Tuck in 2003. Professor La Porta’s research has focused on issues of investor protection and corporate governance across the world, an area known as “law and finance.” He is an expert on cross-country differences in laws and practice pertaining to investor protection and how those differences cause economies, stock markets, and firms’ financing practices to vary.