About

Adair Morse is a Professor of Finance at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. He holds the William A. and Betty H. Hasler Chair in New Enterprise Development and is the Founding Faculty Director of the Sustainable and Impact Finance (SAIF) center. His research focuses on the intersection of finance, sustainability, and impact investing.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Economics
• Political Science
• Business
• Computer Science
• Finance
• Demography
• Public administration
• Law and economics
• Microeconomics
• Financial system
• Economic growth
• Actuarial science
• Law
• Medicine
• Psychology
• Demographic economics

Selected publications

• AI-Absorbing Innovation

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2026-01-01

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Venture Debt

  2025-01-01

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Correction to: how pervasive is corporate fraud?

  Review of Accounting Studies · 2025-09-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Economics of Net Zero Banking

  Annual Review of Financial Economics · 2025-08-25 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  In this review, we explore the economic channels through which net zero banking might be consistent with lender business incentives. We begin with a framework wherein net zero lending may create value differentially from carbon-intensive lending through the channels of ( a ) credit risk and ( b ) lending returns conditional on risk (i.e., profit margins and lending book growth). When applying the framework as a lens to survey the literature, we uncover multiple roles for risk characteristics of lending opportunities being influenced by decarbonization. Moreover, decarbonization and green investment are tied to enhanced profitability through bank lending growth. We also highlight gaps in research knowledge and point out opportunities to connect the broader banking literature with climate finance. For instance, bank specialization in sector-specific risk and return advantages in bank lending may already be playing a role in the net zero transition. We conclude that net zero banking is an economic concept.

  PublisherDOI

• The Economics of Net Zero Banking

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Venture Debt

  2024-01-01

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Auto Finance in the Electric Vehicle Transition

  Finance and Economics Discussion Series · 2024-08-01

  articleOpen access

  Financing cost differentials tilt the calculus for households toward electric vehicles (EVs). Using 85 million observations on U.S. auto loans, we study households’ credit risk by engine type, seek to uncover the sources and ask if credit risk differentials are being priced. We find that EV borrowers default 29% less relative to internal combustion engine vehicle (ICEV) borrowers with a back-of-the-envelope value of $1,457 in lender savings. To disentangle selection from expost exposure to differential costs of running an EV, we implement a differential shock exposure by treatment model of Borusyak and Hull (2023). Do lenders passalong these savings to borrowers? EV borrowers pay 2.2 percentage point lower interest rate, the equivalent of $2,711 in foregone payments. This lower rate is only for captive (manufacturer-based) lenders, not for bank and nonbank lenders, suggestive of policy and strategic motives by manufacturers, not a passing along of credit risk value. Another $1,457 is probably not being priced to households. Finally, we find that the ABS market knows, at least partially, allowing for less in loan loss reserves buffering the ABS, reflecting $233 in savings for the ABS issuer.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Climate Postures

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Venture Debt

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2024-03-01

  reportOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  The provision of venture debt financing to growth-oriented startups which are backed by venture capital (VC) equity has been a bit of a puzzle given the lack of positive cash flows or traditional collateral of such startups. This short paper lays out the hurdles for debt to overcome to be a viable source of finance and casts the three types of venture debt -patent loans, venture leverage, and bridge loans -as solutions to such hurdles, casting the literature in terms of financial innovation. Finally, the paper addresses the risks implied by venture debt and discusses whether the demise of Silicon Valley Bank speaks to whether innovation ecosystem risk transmutes to the financial system through debt and the extent to which innovation ecosystem risk remains unstudied.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Venture Debt

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Luigi Zingales

  University of Chicago

  74 shared

• Margarita Tsoutsoura

  52 shared

• Marianne Bertrand

  University of Chicago

  45 shared

• Robert P. Bartlett

  34 shared

• Alexander Dyck

  Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. (DLR)

  30 shared

• Nancy Wallace

  York University

  25 shared

• Richard Stanton

  University of California, Berkeley

  25 shared

• Eunhee Kim

  16 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Finance

  University of California - Berkeley

• B.S., Finance

  University of California - Berkeley

Awards & honors

• New Zealand Finance Meeting – 2nd Best Paper (2018)
• RAFI Best Paper Award for ESG (2018)
• Runner-up The RAFI Best Paper Award for ESG-related research…
• European Finance Association Prize (2012)
• Jensen Prize for Corporate Finance and Organizations (2009)