# Belén Villalonga

0 bv16 [Tenured or Tenure Track](/taxonomy/term/4799) William R. Berkley Professor in Management and Finance 2012       ![Belen Villalonga profile photo](/sites/default/files/styles/480w_x_543h/public/media/bvillalo.jpg?h=2ec95f4b&itok=LiTa4p5X)

Tisch Hall

40 West Fourth Street, 7-21

New York, NY 10012

7-21 belen.villalonga 0 - Ph.D., Management, 2001

University of California, Los Angeles
- Ph.D., Economic and Management Sciences, 2000

Universidad Complutense de Madrid
- M.A., Economics, 1998

University of California, Los Angeles
- B.A., Economic and Management Sciences, 1991

Colegio Universitario de Estudios Financieros, Madrid

- Managing Family Businesses
- Corporate Strategy
- Competitive Strategy

Belén Villalonga is the William R. Berkley Professor in Management and Finance at New York University’s Stern School of Business. Between 2001 and 2012 she was a faculty member at the Harvard Business School.

Professor Villalonga’s work focuses on family business, corporate strategy and corporate governance. She has written several articles on how family ownership and control influence firms’ governance and strategy and, ultimately, their performance. She has also studied extensively the area of corporate diversification. She has developed and taught courses and programs for graduate and undergraduate students as well as for executives and business families. Her award-winning research has been published in leading academic journals, has been cited about 20,000 times in scholarly articles, and has been featured in the leading international media outlets.

Professor Villalonga serves or has served as an independent director on the board of several companies that are global leaders in their respective industries: Técnicas Reunidas (engineering); Ferroglobe (mining & metallurgy); Mapfre USA (insurance); Banco Santander International (private banking); Grifols (biopharma); Acciona (renewable energy & infrastructure); and Talgo (high-speed trains).

She holds a Ph.D. in Management and an M.A. in Economics from the University of California at Los Angeles, where she was a Fulbright Scholar. She also holds a second Ph.D. in Business Economics from the Complutense University of Madrid. She is fluent in Spanish, English, and French, and conversant in Portuguese and Italian.

Management

- Family Businesses
- Corporate Governance
- Corporate Strategy
- Mergers & Acquisitions

Finance

- Valuation

- Family business
- Strategic ownership
- Corporate governance
- Corporate strategy
- Corporate finance

- **25th Anniversary Award for the most influential paper published in JCF since its founding,**  Journal of Corporate Finance (2018)
- **Visiting Scholar and founding team member, The Ownership Project,**  SAID Business School, Oxford University (2018)
- **Second Prize, 2010-2012 Pearson Best Paper Prize,**  Financial Management (2012)
- **Junior Faculty Recipient, Wyss Award for Excellence in Mentoring Doctoral Students,**  Harvard Business School (2010)
- **Standard Life Investments Finance Prize for the best paper in the Finance Working Paper series,**  European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) (2007)
- **Andre Hoffman Visiting Professor of Family Enterprise,**  INSEAD (2007)
- **Associate Professor, Finance Unit, 2006 - 2012,**  Harvard Business School (2006)
- **Best Unpublished Research Paper Award,**  Family Firms Institute (2006)
- **First Prize, 2004 Brattle Prize for outstanding papers,**  Journal of Finance (2005)
- **First Prize, 2002-2004 Addison-Wesley Best Paper Prize,**  Financial Management (2004)
- **Assistant Professor, Finance Unit, 2001 - 2006,**  Harvard Business School (2001)

- Feldman, Emilie, Raphael Amit, and Belén Villalonga (2019)

Family firms and the stock market performance of acquisitions and divestitures

Strategic Management Journal 40, 757–780
- Villalonga, Belén, Peter Tufano, and Boya Wang (2025)

Corporate ownership and ESG performance

Journal of Corporate Finance 91, 102732
- Villalonga, Belén, Raphael Amit, María Andrea Trujillo, and Alexander Guzmán (2015)

Governance of family firms

Annual Reviews of Financial Economics 7, 635–654
- Villalonga, Belén, and Raphael Amit (2010)

[Family control of firms and industries](http://people.stern.nyu.edu/bvillalo/VillalongaAmit_FM2010.pdf)

Financial Management, 39 (3), 863-904
- Villalonga, Belén, and Raphael Amit (2009)

[How are U.S. family firms controlled?](http://people.stern.nyu.edu/bvillalo/VillalongaAmit_RFS2009.pdf)

Review of Financial Studies, 22 (8), 3047-3091
- Villalonga, Belén, and Raphael Amit (2006)

[How do family ownership, control, and management affect firm value?](http://people.stern.nyu.edu/bvillalo/VillalongaAmit_JFE2006.pdf)

Journal of Financial Economics, 80 (2), 385-417
- Villalonga, Belén, and Anita McGahan (2005)

[The choice among acquisitions, alliances, and divestitures](http://people.stern.nyu.edu/bvillalo/VillalongaMcGahanSMJ05.pdf)

Strategic Management Journal, 26 (13), 1183-1208
- Villalonga, Belén (2004)

[Diversification discount or premium? New evidence from the Business Information Tracking Series](http://people.stern.nyu.edu/bvillalo/Villalonga_DivPremium_JF2004.pdf)

Journal of Finance, 59, 479-506
- Villalonga, Belén (2004)

[Does diversification cause the 'diversification discount'?](http://people.stern.nyu.edu/bvillalo/Villalonga_FM2004.pdf)

Financial Management, 33 (2), 5-27
- Demsetz, Harold, and Belén Villalonga (2001)

[Ownership structure and corporate performance](http://people.stern.nyu.edu/bvillalo/DemsetzVillalonga_JCF2001.pdf)

Journal of Corporate Finance, 7, 209-233

[https://w4.stern.nyu.edu/faculty/static/cv/cv\_bv16\_20251014.pdf](https://w4.stern.nyu.edu/faculty/static/cv/cv_bv16_20251014.pdf)