MS in Real Estate Faculty

Steve's research focuses on the intersection of housing, schools, neighborhoods and crime. His work addresses several important policy issues including the impact of public investment in light-rail transit on neighborhoods, how school segregation influences academic achievement, political ideology and crime, the causes of neighborhood gentrification, lead-based paint and low-income housing as well as ongoing research that examines the impact of sea level rise and natural disasters on neighborhood sorting and household finances. His work has appeared in such publications as the The Quarterly Journal of Economics, American Economic Review:Insights, American Economic Journal:Applied Economics, The Review of Economics & Statistics, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Urban Economics and Real Estate Economics.

Emily Gallagher is an associate professor of finance in the real estate track at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado Boulder. Her research focuses on household finance, climate change, insurance, and real estate, using quasi-experimental methods applied to geospatial, regulatory, and financial data. Gallagher examines how households prepare for and respond to financial shocks, especially climate disasters. Her 2022 article in the Journal of Financial Economics, “Let the Rich Be Flooded: The Distribution of Financial Aid and Distress after Hurricane Harvey,” was featured in the 2023 Economic Report of the President of the United States. Another study, “Blood Money: Selling Plasma to Avoid High-Interest Loans,” co-authored with John Dooley and published in The Review of Financial Studies in 2024, received the 2025 CESR Best Paper Award. Her research on underinsurance, disaster recovery, and crowdfunding has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, NPR, and BBC World Service.

Jaehee Song is an Assistant Professor of Finance and Real Estate in the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She holds a Ph.D. degree in Economics from Yale University and a B.S. in Mathematical Sciences and a B.S. in Management Sciences from KAIST. Her primary area of research is Urban and Real Estate Economics, and other research interests include Public Economics and Industrial Organization. Her current research studies zoning regulations in the United States.

Christophe Spaenjers is a Professor of Finance at the Leeds School of Business. He is an academic expert on the markets for real estate, art, and other "real and private-value assets." He graduated with a Ph.D. in Finance from Tilburg University (the Netherlands) in 2011. Prior to joining Leeds in 2022, he was a faculty member at HEC Paris (France). His research has been published in leading academic journals such as the American Economic Review, Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Economics, and Management Science. His research has been covered extensively in the popular press (e.g., The Economist, Financial Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal) as well.