Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh is the Earle W. Kazis and Benjamin Schore Professor of Real Estate at

Columbia Business School Columbia Business School (CBS) is the business school of Columbia University, a Private university, private research university in New York City. Established in 1916, Columbia Business School is one of six Ivy League business schools and is one ...

. For his research on the economic impact of

working from home Remote work, also called work from home (WFH), work from anywhere, telework, remote job, mobile work, and distance work is an employment arrangement in which employees do not commute to a central place of work, such as an office building, war ...

on real estate and public finance, he is called "the prophet of urban doom" by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''.

Biography

Van Nieuwerburgh received his B.A. from the University of Gent and his M.A. and Ph.D. from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. He joined the faculty of

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

in 2003 and was named David S. Loeb Professor of Finance in 2016 before joining the Columbia faculty in 2018. His research has focused on real estate and asset pricing. He is the recipient of the 2015

Germán Bernácer Prize The Bernacer Prize is awarded annually to European young economists who have made outstanding contributions in the fields of macroeconomics and finance. The prize is named after Germán Bernácer, an early Spanish macroeconomist. The prize was ...

, "for his influential research on the transmission of shocks in the housing market on the macro-economy and the prices of financial assets." He was also an editor of ''

The Review of Financial Studies ''The Review of Financial Studies'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering the field of finance. It is published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Financial Studies. It was established following discussions at the 1986 ...

''.

Urban doom loop

Van Nieuwerburgh gained media attention when he published two papers in 2022 on how remote work has created an "urban doom loop" in major American cities. He argued that remote work makes office space less valuable, causes companies to move away and lowers a city's revenue from real estate taxes, subsequently leading to a reduction in public service investment and provision. People working from home also leads to lower urban foot traffic and less retail spending, resulting in a relative increase in urban homelessness and crime, which makes people feel unsafe and leave the city, damaging the city's revenue stream and perpetuating the vicious cycle. He also saw working from home as the new normal, and forecasted "broader implications for investors in equity and debt markets, productivity and innovation, local public finances, and the climate." Van Nieuwerburgh argued that between 30 and 40 percent of New York's office space could be turned into "wonderful housing" to make the city more attractive and ease the damage from remote work.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Nieuwerburgh, Stijn Living people Columbia Business School faculty Ghent University alumni Stanford University alumni Belgian economists New York University Stern School of Business faculty Year of birth missing (living people)