Harold Bierman
Harold Bierman has been a Cornell faculty member since 1956, and formerly taught at Louisiana State University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Chicago. Professor Bierman has also taught as a visitor at INSEAD,
Leuven and Cambridge. He was a recipient of the annual Dow Jones Award from the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business for outstanding contributions to collegiate business education. In 1985 he served
as a scholar-in-residence at the investment banking firm of
Prudential Bache and in 1990 he served as Senior Academic Fellow at the Financial Accounting Standards Board. His industrial experience includes consulting with Corning
Corporation, Eastman Kodak, Emerson Electric Co., IBM, AT&T, Anheuser-Busch, and Xerox Corp. His primary teaching interest is corporate financial policy. He has written
twenty-six books, including The Capital Budgeting Decision (with Seymour Smidt) and The Great Myths of 1929, and more than a hundred and sixty journal articles.
Papers Published in World Economics:
Bad Market Days
There are a large number of misconceptions regarding the great stock market
crash of 1929 and the crash of 1987. Both crashes occurred when the general level of business was good and getting better. In 1929 there were very few hints that the great depression was two years away. In fact, in recognition of the favourable business climate, by the end of 1929 the market had recovered most of its October losses and was down only 11.9% from its highs (the major losses were to occur in 1930–1932). There were several causes of the 1929 crash. Two of the most important causes were the campaign by the Federal Government against
the orgy of speculation taking place in New York City and an action by the Public Utility Commission of Massachusetts that triggered a collapse of inflated public utility stock prices. That, in turn, triggered a collapse of other stock prices.
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