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: Spring 2025

DATESPEAKERLOCATION
February 28 
10:30 a.m. – Noon
Aaron Pancost 
University of Texas, Austin
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VMH 1330
March 7 
10:30 a.m. – Noon
Adi Sunderam 
Harvard University
VMH 1333
March 14 
10:30 a.m. – Noon
Deniz Aydin 
Washington University in St Louis
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VMH 1333
April 4 
10:30 a.m. – Noon
Taisiya Sikorskaya 
University of Chicago
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VMH 1333
April 7 
1:00 pm – 2:30 pm
Kilian Huber 
University of Chicago
Download: Paper 1; Paper 2
VMH 2333 ABC
April 11 
10:30 a.m. – Noon
Torben Andersen 
Northwestern University
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VMH 1333
April 25 
10:30 a.m. - Noon
Bo Bian 
University of British Columbia
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VMH 1333
May 2 
10:30 a.m. – Noon
Julia Fonseca 
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
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VMH 1333
May 9 
10:30 a.m. – Noon
Carola Frydman 
Northwestern University
VMH 1333

Finance Seminar Speakers: Fall 2024

DATESPEAKER
September 6Toni Whited
University of Michigan
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September 13Sharjil Haque
Federal Reserve
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September 20Deeksha Gupta
Johns Hopkins University
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September 27John Shim
University of Notre Dame
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October 4Paymon Khorrami
Duke University
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October 15Charles Nathanson
Northwestern University
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October 18Daniel Garrett
University of Pennsylvania
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October 25Valentin Haddad
UCLA
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November 8Greg Buchak
Stanford University
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November 22Amiyatosh Purnanandam
University of Michigan
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December 6Jaroslav Borovička
New York University
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December 10Scott Baker
Northwestern University
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Finance Seminar Speakers: Spring 2024

DateSpeaker
March 15Christian Opp
University of Rochester
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April 19Janet Gao
Georgetown University
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April 24David Autor
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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April 26Kerry Back
Rice University
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May 3Olivia Kim
Harvard Business School
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May 17Philip Dybvig
Washington University in Saint Louis
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Finance Seminar Speakers: Fall 2023

DateSpeaker
September 7Stavros Panageas
UCLA
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September 15Winston Dou
University of Pennsylvania
September 29Dmitiry Muravyev
Michigan State University
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October 6Luigi Zingales
University of Chicago
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October 18Ufuk Akcigit
University of Chicago
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November 17Sheridan Titman
University of Texas, Austin
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December 8Lubos Pastor
University of Chicago
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December 15Jason 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

April 4, 2018
Mentoring in a #MeToo Era
Addressing #MeToo requires more women leaders; the backlash to #MeToo could create the opposite. Smith School experts offer advice for would-be mentors in the changed environment.
Read the article : Mentoring in a #MeToo Era
March 29, 2018
Seize Growth Opportunities
Public firms grow faster and respond better to positive demand shocks in the first five years after an initial public offering than firms that stay private, new research co-authored by Smith School professor Liu Yang shows.
Read the article : Seize Growth Opportunities
March 28, 2018
Go Slow to Avoid Market Crashes
Wall Street traders make the most money when they do their best to stay under the radar of other traders by making their trades slow and steady. Research co-authored by Smith School professor Yajun Wang shows why.
Read the article : Go Slow to Avoid Market Crashes
March 22, 2018
Inside Spotify's Unconventional – And Risky – Stock Debut
What's the big deal about Spotify's unconventional IPO? The music-streaming giant is set to come to market without the help of some big investment bank. It's a known brand, and it's shown growth in its niche. So, why are investors so jittery?
Read the article : Inside Spotify's Unconventional – And Risky – Stock Debut
March 15, 2018
Manage the Risks of Privatization
While privatization comes with benefits — like not being beholden to market speculation — it also carries risks. Research by Smith School professor Hanna Lee suggests that going the public route may be better for the risk-averse. 
Read the article : Manage the Risks of Privatization
March 14, 2018
Here’s What’s Missing From Dodd-Frank Reforms
As Congress reexamines the Dodd-Frank law, the Smith School's Clifford Rossi offers this advice: Draw the credit-reporting agencies into its scope.
Read the article : Here’s What’s Missing From Dodd-Frank Reforms
March 7, 2018
Optimize Executive Incentives
Leaders might deserve dismissal when they behave badly, but some lose their jobs for simply having the right skills at the wrong time. "Over time changes in business conditions may call for a change of top management," Smith School professor M. Cecilia Bustamante says.
Read the article : Optimize Executive Incentives
March 1, 2018
#MeToo Must Be a B-School Call To Action
Business schools might seem safely removed from the transformation happening across corporate America. They're not. Institutions like mine play a central role in shaping attitudes about gender in the workplace
Read the article : #MeToo Must Be a B-School Call To Action
February 6, 2018
Are Wall Street Salaries a Scourge?
Wall Street has garnered a reputation for its high salaries. Analysts, policymakers and academics have chided the industry, accusing it of helping to distort the "efficient allocation of talent." Smith School experts break down that criticism.
Read the article : Are Wall Street Salaries a Scourge?
February 6, 2018
A Wells Fargo Sanction, a Warning for Its Peers
For Wells Fargo, the Fed's stringent sanctions last week undoubtedly come as a bit of a blow. For the rest of the banking industry, more of a warning. "This is a supervisory slapdown in a major," says the Smith School's Clifford Rossi.
Read the article : A Wells Fargo Sanction, a Warning for Its Peers