Finance seminar - Associate Professor Yoshio Nozawa - University of Toronto

A seminar by Associate Professor Yoshio Nozawa from University of Toronto

Title: Market Value of US Universities

Abstract: We estimate the market value of “equities” of US private universities by applying a structural
credit risk model to the observed credit spreads of their bonds. We find that Yale University is
at the top of the ranking, valued at $151 billion, followed by Harvard and Stanford. Should they
be listed, their values would be comparable to McDonald’s and Intel. Taking advantage of our
panel data on the monthly market value of universities, we conduct a difference-in-differences
analysis to assess the impact of recent policy changes on university values. The student debt
relief announced in March 2020 increased the market value by 17.4 per cent, while the research funding
freeze in March 2025 decreased it by 39.4 per cent.

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