Lazard’s Eric Van Nostrand on quant investing in emerging market equities
INTERVIEWSERIES
Eric Van Nostrand, Chief Investment Officer, Lazard Asset Management
April 2026
In this exclusive interview, Eric discusses the role of quantitative investing in emerging market equities and how it can adapt to regime shifts without overreacting to short-term noise and macro interference to more reliably generate alpha.
Watch the full interview which covers:
00:12 - How does limited analyst and media coverage in emerging markets create opportunities for skilled active managers?
01:04 - Can you explain why macro interference is especially problematic in EM equities, and how a systematic framework mitigates this?
02:50 - How can a quantitative process adapt to regime shifts without overreacting to short‑term noise?
04:03 - How does the law of large numbers support more reliable alpha generation in emerging markets?
05:10 - Do systematic approaches work in other inefficient markets, like small cap?
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Eric Van Nostrand, Chief Investment Officer, Lazard Asset Management
Eric is the Chief Investment Officer for Lazard Asset Management.
Before joining Lazard, Eric served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy during the Biden Administration, where he led Treasury's economic analysis of domestic and international policies including energy policy and sanctions on Russia and Iran. He received the Alexander Hamilton Award, Treasury's highest honour.
Before his government service, Eric was a portfolio manager and Managing Director at BlackRock, where he managed systematic equity funds and served as Head of Research for Multi-Asset Strategies. He earned undergraduate degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and holds a JD from Yale Law School. His writing on investing, economics, and economic policy has been published in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and other outlets.
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