Dr. Burcu Esmer

Dr. Burcu Esmer
  • Academic Director, Harris Family Alternative Investments Program
  • Academic Director, Wharton-AltFinance Institute
  • Academic Director, Wharton-Girls Who Invest Summer Intensive Program
  • Senior Lecturer of Finance

Contact Information

  • office Address:

    2439 Steinberg-Dietrich Hall
    3620 Locust Walk
    Philadelphia, PA 19104

Research Interests: Private Equity & Empirical Corporate Finance: agency conflicts, and their impact on corporate policies

Links: Personal Website

Overview

Burcu Esmer is the Academic Co-Director at Wharton Harris Family Alternative Investments Program and Senior Lecturer of Finance at the Wharton School.

Dr. Esmer earned her BSc in Economics with a Minor in Mathematics, graduating with Highest Honor (Summa Cum Laude) from Middle East Technical University (Türkiye). She completed her MA in Economics and PhD in Finance at the Tippie College of Business, University of Iowa. Dr. Esmer’s primary areas of research are empirical corporate finance, banking and private equity. She investigates agency conflicts, and their impact on corporate policies. Her work has been published in leading academic journals such as The Accounting Review, Journal of Banking & Finance, and Applied Mathematical Modelling.

Dr. Esmer teaches private equity and corporate finance in  Wharton Executive Education and degree programs. She is the Academic Director of Wharton Wharton – Wall Street Prep Private Equity Certificate Program. Dr. Esmer is the recipient of Wharton’s Teaching Excellence Award in Undergraduate Teaching (2024, 2023, 2019) and in Executive MBA Teaching (2024, 2023). Dr. Esmer is also recognized as one of Poets & Quants’ Best Undergraduate Business Professors of 2024.

Dr. Esmer works closely with various non-profit organizations that aim to increase diversity in asset management and alternative investments. She is the Academic Director of Girls Who Invest  Summer Intensive Program and Wharton-AltFinance Institute. She has served on the advisory board of Girls Who Invest since 2018.

A frequent presenter and keynote speaker at academic and industry conferences worldwide, Dr. Esmer’s insights are regularly featured in publications such as Wharton Magazine, Marketplace, and Financial Times’ FundFire Alts. She is also a member of the American Finance Association and the European Finance Association.

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Research

  • Burcu Esmer, Suhas A. Sridharan, Naim Bugra Ozel Ozel (2023), Disclosure and Lawsuits Ahead of Initial Public Offerings, The Accounting Review, 98 (2), pp. 123-147.

    Abstract: We examine whether initial public offering (IPO) registration disclosures expose firms to greater nonshareholder litigation risk. Using hand-collected data on lawsuits initiated at federal and state courts against IPO firms, we show that firms that submit their IPO registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission publicly experience a 16 percent increase in litigation risk between the registration filing and issuance date. Consistent with the public filing of the registration driving this heightened litigation risk, firms that file their registration confidentially under the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act do not experience such an increase in litigation risk. The effects of confidential filing are concentrated among business-initiated lawsuits, intellectual property/contract lawsuits, and potentially meritless lawsuits. We find no disproportionate increase in lawsuits after an IPO for confidential filers, suggesting that withholding information during the IPO registration period mitigates litigation risk.

  • Burcu Esmer (2020), Temporary Price Changes During Replenishment Leadtime, Applied Mathematical Modelling, 78 (), pp. 217-231.

    Abstract: Pricing and inventory management make up together revenue management, which is a significant effort to boost revenues out of available resources. Firms use various forms of dynamic pricing, including personalized pricing, markdowns, promotions, coupons, discounts, and clearance sales, to respond to market fluctuations and demand uncertainty. In this paper, we study a temporary price increase policy, a form of dynamic pricing, for a non-perishable product, a practice used by several giant retailers such as Amazon, Walmart, and Apple. We develop a continuous review inventory model that allows for joint replenishment and pricing decisions, where the lead time is not zero. A replenishment decision controls supply, while a pricing decision controls demand. A manager exercises a temporary price increase to slow demand and avoid a stock-out situation while waiting for a shipment, which may not necessarily increase revenues, but decrease stock-out costs. The problem is to solve for the optimal replenishment and the pricing policy parameters that maximize the long-run expected profit. That is, when and how much to order and when to raise the price. In this paper, the inventory level and time trigger a price increase. We solve many numerical examples and perform extensive sensitivity analyses. Our results show that compared to a model that focuses on fixed pricing, our model brings an additional increase in profit of about 13%.

  • Burcu Esmer (2018), Creditor control and product-market competition, Journal of Banking & Finance, 86 (), pp. 87-100.

    Abstract: We explore how rival firms respond when firms in their industry violate debt covenants. We find that rival firms increase advertising expense, and that this increase is proportional to the size of industry violators’ pre-existing market share. Rival firm product-market share also increases in the industry market share of violators, and this relation is more pronounced when products are more substitutable. Rival firm operating performance also increases in proportion to the industry market share of violators. Overall, these findings suggest that the increased creditor control associated with covenant violations has a significant influence on rival firms and product-market competition.

Teaching

All Courses

  • FNCE2030 - Advanced Corp Finance

    This course discusses the theory and empirical evidence related to the various investment and financing policies of the firm and attempts to improve decision-making ability in these areas. This course covers aspects of financial management not covered in FNCE 1000, including mergers and acquisitions, corporate reorganizations, financial planning and working capital management. It also offers a more rigorous coverage of topics discussed in FNCE 1000, such as investment under uncertainty, cost of capital, capital structure, pricing of selected financial instruments and dividend policy.

  • FNCE2510 - Fnce of Buyouts & Acqs

    The course focuses on financial tools, techniques, and best practices used in buyouts (financial buyers) and acquisitions (strategic buyers). While it will touch upon various strategic, organizational, and general management issues, the main lens for studying these transactions will be a financial one. It will explore how different buyers approach the process of finding, evaluating, and analyzing opportunities in the corporate-control market; how they structure deals and how deal structure affects both value creation and value division; how they add value after transaction completion; and how they realize their ultimate objectives (such as enhanced market position or a profitable exit). The course is divided into two broad modules. The first module covers mergers and acquisitions, and the second one studies buyouts by private equity partnerships. FNCE 2030 or FNCE 2070 are recommended.

  • FNCE3990 - Independent Study

    Integrates the work of the various courses and familiarizes the student with the tools and techniques of research.

  • FNCE4010 - Advanced Topics in PE

    This course will cover a variety of applied topics in private equity (PE) with a focus on growth and later-stage buyout transactions. It will have a primarily U.S.-centric view that is largely applicable to other markets. Venture capital is not explicitly addressed in this course. Course topics will address the entirety of the deal process and value creation in the post-acquisition period, and will include the following: - LBO modeling - Commercial due diligence (principles and execution) - Debt financing - Sale & purchase agreements (SPA) - Accounting diligence - Deal structuring - Operations & Value creation Throughout the course, students will learn about each element of the deal process through in-class lectures, while concurrently applying those learnings to former transactions (these must be old enough that sharing material is no longer sensitive). The in-class lectures will cover conceptual frameworks, practical considerations and real-world case studies and examples. There will be four assignments in this course. The first three assignments will apply these learnings to the art of the deal through a real world lens. In the last assignment, students will develop a value creation plan for designated public companies "TargetCo1" and "TargetCo2". Students are expected to actively engage in classroom discussions, challenging one another and the instructors about how to think through these issues in an ever-evolving investment world. In addition, throughout the course, students are expected to work as a team on the assignments.

  • FNCE7510 - Fnce of Buyouts & Acqs

    The course focuses on financial tools, techniques, and best practices used in buyouts (financial buyers) and acquisitions (strategic buyers). While it will touch upon various strategic, organizational, and general management issues, the main lens for studying these transactions will be a financial one. It will explore how different buyers approach the process of finding, evaluating, and analyzing opportunities in the corporate-control market; how they structure deals and how deal structure affects both value creation and value division; how they add value after transaction completion; and how they realize their ultimate objectives (such as enhanced market position or a profitable exit). The course is divided into two broad modules. The first module covers mergers and acquisitions, and the second one studies buyouts by private equity partnerships. FNCE 7030 or FNCE 7070 are recommended.

  • FNCE8990 - Independent Study

    Independent Study Projects require extensive independent work and a considerable amount of writing. ISP in Finance are intended to give students the opportunity to study a particular topic in Finance in greater depth than is covered in the curriculum. The application for ISP's should outline a plan of study that requires at least as much work as a typical course in the Finance Department that meets twice a week. Applications for FNCE 8990 ISP's will not be accepted after the THIRD WEEK OF THE SEMESTER. ISP's must be supervised by a Standing Faculty member of the Finance Department.

Awards and Honors

In the News

Knowledge at Wharton

Wharton Stories

Activity

Latest Research

Burcu Esmer, Suhas A. Sridharan, Naim Bugra Ozel Ozel (2023), Disclosure and Lawsuits Ahead of Initial Public Offerings, The Accounting Review, 98 (2), pp. 123-147.
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In the News

How Private Equity Firms Are Coping With Tariffs

Tariff disruptions offer private equity investors opportunities to acquire undervalued assets, but they also challenge their reliance on predictable earnings, says Wharton’s Burcu Esmer.…Read More

Knowledge at Wharton - 6/24/2025
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Wharton Magazine

Data: Voting Wait Times, Pre-IPO Confidentiality, and More
Wharton Magazine - 10/16/2020

Wharton Stories

A large group of professionally dressed individuals pose together, standing on steps in front of a brick building.Dollars and Sense: How Wharton and AltFinance Carve New Opportunity

In Fall 2023, the School hosted the Wharton-AltFinance Institute conference on Penn’s campus in a two day workshop for historically Black college and university (HBCU) students to learn about the alternative finance investment industry.  The Wharton School collaborates with the AltFinance initiative to introduce HBCU students to alternative investing, which…

Wharton Stories - 01/22/2024
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