Rory Van Loo

Rory Van Loo
  • Associate Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics

Contact Information

  • office Address:

    668 Jon M. Huntsman Hall
    3730 Walnut Street
    Philadelphia, PA 19104

Links: CV

Overview

Professor Van Loo’s research focuses on how technological, market, and social shifts invite a rethinking of the regulatory framework for consumer-facing businesses. He was ranked the 14th most cited of all legal scholars in 2024 for recent publications (and 8th most cited once adjusted for co-authorship). His articles were twice selected through blind peer review for the Harvard/Stanford/Yale Junior Faculty Forum and have been published in various journals such as the Columbia Law Review, Virginia Law Review, and University of Chicago Law Review. His perspectives have also appeared in NPR’s Weekend Edition, The Sunday Times, Reuters, Bloomberg, and USA Today, among others.

In 2025, Profesor Van Loo testified in the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights hearing on “Big Fixes for Big Tech.” Several of Professor Van Loo’s scholarly ideas were later implemented, including through the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s issuance of a data-sharing rule.

Prior to Wharton, Professor Van Loo taught at Harvard Law School and the Boston University School of Law. He also served on the implementation team that launched the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and conducted empirical studies for multinational corporations in mergers and acquisitions, consumer marketing, and organizational design at McKinsey & Co.

Professor Van Loo’s intellectual engagement with digital markets began with an undergraduate major in science, technology, and society, focusing on computer science. He then received a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship to travel to Argentina, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, India, Mali, Peru, Senegal, and Vietnam researching the social impact of the internet.

Education

Yale University, Ph.D., with distinction

Harvard Law School, J.D., magna cum laude

Pomona College, B.A., magna cum laude

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Research

Professor Van Loo’s publications can be found here.

Teaching

All Courses

  • LGST2430 - Other People's Money

    We learn in introductory economics courses that money is fungible: that is, one dollar is as good as the next. Indeed, using money as a "medium of exchange" is one of its defining characteristics. But what happens when we take a big pile of money and put it in different buckets. On one bucket we might write "hedge fund"; on another, "central bank"; on still another, "payday lender." Then money starts to change in ways defined by law, history, ethics, and politics. This course will take you on a tour of these different buckets--different kinds of financial institutions, broadly defined--throughout the modern financial system. We will look at hedge funds, insurance companies, investment banks, sovereign wealth funds, central banks, consumer banks, payday lenders, state-sponsored enterprises (like the Export-Import Bank in the United States and much of the financial system in China), and the cutting edge of fintech, including crowd-funded lending, digital currencies, and more. In each case, students will be exposed to a series of specialized questions: Where did this institution come from? What problem is it trying to solve that other alternatives could not resolve? What is the basic business (or, where relevant, regulatory) model for each institution? How is each institution regulated, and by whom? What are the ethical considerations in each context? What are the political considerations that each market participant faces?

  • LGST6430 - Other People's Money

    We learn in introductory economics courses that money is fungible: that is, one dollar is as good as the next. Indeed, using money as a "medium of exchange" is one of its defining characteristics. But what happens when we take a big pile of money and put it in different buckets. On one bucket we might write "hedge fund"; on another, "central bank"; on still another, "payday lender." Then money starts to change in ways defined by law, history, ethics, and politics. This course will take you on a tour of these different buckets--different kinds of financial institutions, broadly defined--throughout the modern financial system. We will look at hedge funds, insurance companies, investment banks, sovereign wealth funds, central banks, consumer banks, payday lenders, state-sponsored enterprises (like the Export-Import Bank in the United States and much of the financial system in China), and the cutting edge of fintech, including crowd-funded lending, digital currencies, and more. In each case, students will be exposed to a series of specialized questions: Where did this institution come from? What problem is it trying to solve that other alternatives could not resolve? What is the basic business (or, where relevant, regulatory) model for each institution? How is each institution regulated, and by whom? What are the ethical considerations in each context? What are the political considerations that each market participant faces?

Awards and Honors

14th Most-Cited Legal Scholar (8th adjusted for co-authorship), 2024

 Scholarship Award, Boston University School of Law, 2024

Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review Award, 2020

Journal of Things We Like (Lots), 2017, 2018 & 2020

Harvard/Stanford/Yale Junior Faculty Forum, 2017 & 2018

Peter Paul Career Development Professorship, 2017

    Knowledge at Wharton

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