The Quiet Cost of Slow Permits
Debates about infrastructure fixate on how much we spend. The more decisive variable is often how long approval takes — and that is a choice, not a law of nature.
Essays · Projects · Tools
Writing and building at the intersection of law, policy, finance, and strategy.
I write essays on public policy and markets, build analytical tools, and work on legal and strategic problems. This site collects the work.
About
I'm Matthew Livingstone — a student of law, business, and public policy. I lead compliance work at a student investment fund, compete in mock trial and moot court, and build analytical tools that turn research into something you can actually use. This site is where the writing and the work live side by side.
More about me →Featured essays
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What Event Studies Actually Measure
Event studies are one of the most seductive tools in empirical finance — and one of the easiest to misread. Here is what the abnormal return does and does not tell you.
Featured projects & tools
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Regulatory Monitoring Dashboard
An automated scanner that monitors 25 portfolio holdings for material regulatory developments and produces investor-ready briefings.
Incident Event Study Tool
A generalized event study workflow that measures abnormal share-price reactions to environmental incidents, with benchmark-aware recovery analysis.
What I'm building
- Regulatory Monitoring Dashboard — An automated scanner that monitors 25 portfolio holdings for material regulatory developments and produces investor-ready briefings.
- ESG Materiality Report — An institutional-style materiality mapping of ESG risk factors for an equity portfolio, built on the SASB framework with a full pilot tearsheet.
Start reading, or see the work.
The essays cover policy, markets, and law. The projects turn that thinking into tools, reports, and dashboards.