Kim Pernell is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and a Canada Research Chair in Economic Sociology at the University of Toronto. Her research examines the causes and consequences of recent transformations in the financial sector, both globally and within North America. One line of research uses quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate drivers of excessive bank risk-taking. Past and ongoing studies in this area highlight different ways that the shareholder value revolution has led to an expansion in risky bank behavior. In a second line of research, she examines the divergent development of national bank regulatory systems. She is currently writing a book about how longstanding institutional arrangements in the U.S., Canada, and Spain shaped the historical evolution banking regulation in these countries. Despite following the same international rules, each country developed very different regulatory systems in the 1990s and 2000s, with important consequences for bank outcomes when the global financial crisis hit. In a third line of research, she explores how financialization has contributed to the growing concentration and consolidation of the small business sector. Taken together, all of her research emphasizes the role of institutions in driving risky or undesirable organizational behavior.
She received her BA in Sociology from Beloit College and her PhD in Sociology from Harvard University.