Finance Research

The finance faculty is an active research group dedicated to advancing the understanding of financial economics. Many of the faculty have earned international reputations for contributions to their fields. They are officers of prestigious professional organizations, are editors of and serve on editorial boards of leading academic journals, and consult and teach for public and private sector organizations. They are frequent contributors to the leading scholarly journals in finance and economics.

The combined intellectual capital of the Smith School’s 150 full-time and 50 part-time faculty are geared to the forces that are transforming the global economy and business and dedicated to helping our students understand and adapt to change. The Smith School is consistently ranked in the top 15 in the world for faculty research by Businessweek and Financial Times.

Finance Seminar Speakers: Fall 2026

DateSpeakerLocation
September 4, 2026
10:30 a.m.–Noon
Brian Waters
University of Colorado
Van Munching Hall, Room 1330
September 11, 2026
10:30 a.m.–Noon
Kaushik Vasudevan
Boston College
Download paper
Van Munching Hall, Room 1330
September 18, 2026
3:30–5 p.m.
Juan Antolin-Diaz
MIT
Van Munching Hall, Room 1333
September 25
10:30 a.m.–Noon
Rustam Abuzov
University of Virginia
Van Munching Hall, Room 1330
October 2, 2026
10:30 a.m.–Noon
Antoinette Schoar
MIT
Van Munching Hall, Room 1330
October 16, 2026
10:30 a.m.–Noon
Michael Ewens
Columbia University
Van Munching Hall, Room 1330
October 30, 2026
10:30 a.m.–Noon
Margarita Tsoutsoura
Washington University
Van Munching Hall, Room 1330
November 13, 2026
10:30 a.m.–Noon
Clemens Sialm
University of Texas, Austin
Van Munching Hall, Room 1330
November 20, 2026
10:30 a.m.–Noon
Ben Zhang
USC
Van Munching Hall, Room 1330
December 4, 2026
2–3:30 p.m.
Leyla Han
Boston University
Van Munching Hall, Room 1333
December 11, 2026
10:30 a.m.–Noon
Shuaiyu Chen
University of Virginia
Van Munching Hall, Room 1330

Finance Seminar Speakers: Spring 2026

Speaker
Xavier Giroud
Columbia University
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Sebastian Hillenbrand
Harvard University
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Abhinav Gupta
University of North Carolina
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Josh Rauh
Stanford University
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Oleg Gredl
Tulane University
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Fall 2025

Speaker
Andrew Abel
University of Pennsylvania
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John Graham
Duke University
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Adriano Rampini
Duke University
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Matthew Baron
Georgetown University
Permanent Capital Losses After Banking Crises
By Matthew Baron, Luc Laeven, Julien Pénasse, and Yevhenii Usenko
Heitor Almeida
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The Equity Constraint Channel of Monetary Policy
By Heitor Almeida, Timothy Johnson, Sebastiao Oliveira, and Yucheng Zhou
Kent Daniel
Columbia University
Inefficiencies in the Securities Lending Market
By Kent Daniel, Alexander Klos, and Simon Rottke
Marius Guenzel
University of Pennsylvania
AI Personality Extraction From Faces: Labor Market Implications
By Marius Guenzel, Wharton; Shimon Kogan, Wharton/Reichman; Marina Niessner, Indiana; Kelly Shue, Yale
Simon Mayer
Carnegie Mellon University
Financial Intermediation With Fragile Seigniorage: A Dynamic Model of Stablecoin Issuers
By Ye Li and Simon Mayer
Kairong Xiao
Columbia University
What Do $40 Trillion of Portfolio Holdings Say About Monetary Policy Transmission?
By Chuck Fang and Kairong Xiao
Daniel Graves
Harvard University
Attention and Retail Alignment
By Daniel Graves

Spring 2025

SPEAKER
Aaron Pancost 
University of Texas, Austin
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Deniz Aydin 
Washington University in St Louis
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Taisiya Sikorskaya 
University of Chicago
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Kilian Huber 
University of Chicago
Download: Paper 1; Paper 2
Torben Andersen 
Northwestern University
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Bo Bian 
University of British Columbia
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Julia Fonseca 
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
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Carola Frydman 
Northwestern University

Fall 2024

SPEAKER
Toni Whited
University of Michigan
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Sharjil Haque
Federal Reserve
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Deeksha Gupta
Johns Hopkins University
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John Shim
University of Notre Dame
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Paymon Khorrami
Duke University
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Charles Nathanson
Northwestern University
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Daniel Garrett
University of Pennsylvania
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Valentin Haddad
UCLA
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Greg Buchak
Stanford University
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Amiyatosh Purnanandam
University of Michigan
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Jaroslav Borovička
New York University
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Scott Baker
Northwestern University
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Spring 2024

Speaker
Christian Opp
University of Rochester
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Janet Gao
Georgetown University
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David Autor
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Kerry Back
Rice University
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Olivia Kim
Harvard Business School
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Philip Dybvig
Washington University in Saint Louis
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Fall 2023

Speaker
Stavros Panageas
UCLA
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Winston Dou
University of Pennsylvania
Dmitiry Muravyev
Michigan State University
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Luigi Zingales
University of Chicago
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Ufuk Akcigit
University of Chicago
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Sheridan Titman
University of Texas, Austin
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Lubos Pastor
University of Chicago
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Jason Sockin
Cornell University
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Banking Seminar

October 24, 2024

Event highlights

The Journal of Financial Services Research and the Center for Financial Policy hosted the inaugural Banking Seminar Series at the Ronald Reagan Building, Smith School Suite. The event featured Raghuram G. Rajan, Katherine Dusak Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, who led the first seminar in the series.

Financial Databases & Software

The Robert H. Smith School of Business provides its faculty and students easy access to the world’s leading online real-time financial data and software. In partnership with the University of Maryland McKeldin Library, the Robert H. Smith School of Business provides its faculty and students with a world-class set of research financial and other business databases, and the software to access them. Thomson Reuters Reuters 3000 Xtra – 62 concurrent accesses Reuters 3000 Xtra is a high-speed, integrated information and transaction service. It gives users a commanding view of the global real-time financial arena and provides a combination of news, information and insight as well as access to the global Reuters trading community. Its integrated price discovery and trading capabilities across all asset classes mean that decisions can be made and executed from a single desktop. Reuters 3000 Xtra reflects Reuters vast experience in global financial markets; functionality is continually upgraded and content enriched. Datastream Advance Thomson Datastream Advance offers you access to the world's largest and most respected financial statistical database. It contains more than two million financial instruments, securities, and indicators for over 175 countries in 60 markets. With up to 50 years of history and over 8,000 different fields, it provides access to over one hundred million time series. Thomson Datastream Advance combines easy-to-use, pre-formatted charts and tabular reports with truly flexible charting to help reveal new insights and relationships. Bloomberg Bloomberg Professional – 6 full function terminals The BLOOMBERG PROFESSIONAL® service seamlessly integrates real-time and historical information on about 5 million bonds, equities, commodities, currencies and funds. The electronic library also comprises data on almost every publicly traded company and biographies of more than 1 million people. And because everything is provided in single source, information can be accessed, analyzed or archived with just a few keystrokes or clicks. Historical Databases and Retrieval Software Full access is available to members of the University of Maryland community and on the Maryland campus. WRDS We subscribe to the Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS), a web based data service that provides instant access to several research quality financial databases.

Research Articles

March 11, 2024
Kroger-Albertsons and FTC Antitrust Standards
In September 2022, the proposed $24.6 billion merger of Krogers and Albertsons sparked controversy. The Federal Trade Commission intervened, citing concerns of reduced competition and higher prices. Amidst legal battles, a notable case study by Susan White at the University of Maryland explores the…
Read the article : Kroger-Albertsons and FTC Antitrust Standards
January 25, 2024
How Mafia Crackdowns Drive Competition and Innovation in Local Economies
The Italian Mafia is synonymous with organized crime and some of the country’s most powerful groups wield fearsome power across the world. Their strongholds start at the municipal level. Pablo Slutzky, a finance assistant professor at the Smith School of Business, studies how the mafia’s presence…
Read the article : How Mafia Crackdowns Drive Competition and Innovation in Local Economies
December 11, 2023
The Case for Enterprise Risk Management in Higher Education
Companies have managed risk for years. Traditionally, each business unit evaluates and handles their own risk, then reports to the CEO. Now, conventionally, the practice is holistically evolving to “enterprise risk management” or “ERM.”
Read the article : The Case for Enterprise Risk Management in Higher Education
November 30, 2023
Commercial Real Estate in Demise?
Pre-pandemic, healthy demand for office and retail spaces signaled a growing commercial real estate (CRE) market. Loans were readily available, often with favorable terms. But the COVID lockdowns shifted the landscape significantly with businesses shuttering and employees transitioning to…
Read the article : Commercial Real Estate in Demise?
August 29, 2023
Smith Experts Assess Drug Manufacturing Risk from Natural Hazards
A July tornado that tore across the Rocky Mount, N.C., region left severe damage including to a Pfizer facility. Amid subsequent supply chain disruption, the manufacturer alerted hospitals to a list of 12 drugs available only through emergency orders “due to their high medical need,” effective…
Read the article : Smith Experts Assess Drug Manufacturing Risk from Natural Hazards
August 24, 2023
AI-Powered Pricing: Does It Make the Buying Experience More Fair and Equitable?
Retailers have been using artificial intelligence for a while now. There’s the rudimentary use of it to send out enticing email promotions or timely online ads that we welcome at times and find annoying at others. But retailers are also using AI to track consumers’ behavior both online and in brick…
Read the article : AI-Powered Pricing: Does It Make the Buying Experience More Fair and Equitable?
May 11, 2023
Smith Research Identifies Flaw in SEC Move to Help Investors in Retail Stock Trading Surge
COVID-19 lockdowns and subsequent stimulus payments left many Americans with extra time and cash. Among the effects was a surge in retail stock trading through zero-commission brokerages. This worked to drive up the share price of meme stocks and led to market volatility.
Read the article : Smith Research Identifies Flaw in SEC Move to Help Investors in Retail Stock Trading Surge
April 26, 2023
Is Your Maryland Home At Risk for Damages from Climate Disasters?
Many Maryland homeowners are increasingly faced with the threat of costly home repairs from extreme weather events. With climate change, these events are becoming more frequent and more intense. And that could mean bigger problems for homeowners – particularly those who don’t have the extra cash to…
Read the article : Is Your Maryland Home At Risk for Damages from Climate Disasters?
April 20, 2023
Smith Experts React to Fed Recession Prediction

Federal Reserve economists predicting a mild recession as a result of the recent banking crisis

Read the article : Smith Experts React to Fed Recession Prediction
March 8, 2023
Toxic Train Derailment Vexing for Real Estate Industry
Health safety for residents following the Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, has been a top concern. Has it really been safe enough to return – both for the short- and long-term?
Read the article : Toxic Train Derailment Vexing for Real Estate Industry
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