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Finance

 

The finance area has long been recognized as one of the world's top-10 programs. Finance as a subject area is a highly quantitative discipline. Research produced by the area is geared primarily towards publication and impact in the top academic finance journals. The area has always been eclectic in terms of its research focus, ranging from rational-expectations macro-asset-pricing empirical models to behavioral and experimental theory. UCLA Anderson finance has also had a remarkable tradition of collaboration, beyond that customary among our peers. Virtually all of our finance faculty, at every rank, nowadays works actively with one or more Ph.D. students. It has been quite common for (advanced) Ph.D. students to write papers together with junior and senior faculty. Indeed, an unusually large number of the highest-impact research publications in finance were written by authors who met while at UCLA, be this faculty or Ph.D. students.

From the Finance Ph.D. Liaison

 

“Welcome to UCLA Anderson’s Finance area, long recognized as one of the world’s top programs. Our Ph.D. students work with renowned faculty whose expertise covers corporate finance, macroeconomics, asset pricing, derivatives, investments and behavioral finance. The UCLA Anderson Doctoral Program is highly selective. We expect you to develop a passion and tenacity for excellent research in finance and, through mentorship and collaboration, we prepare you for a distinguished academic career. We look forward to receiving your application.”

Barney Hartman-Glaser
Professor of Finance

Explore the Program

 
Meet the Faculty
Meet the Faculty
Meet the Students
Meet the Students
Courses & Seminars
Courses & Seminars

Recent Publications

 

Risk and Return in Segmented Markets with Expertise
Andrea Eisfeldt

Complex assets appear to earn persistent high average returns, and to display high Sharpe ratios – but investor participation is very limited. Eisfeldt, along with co-authors Hanno Lustig and Lei Zhang, provides an explanation for these facts using a model of the pricing of complex securities by risk-averse investors who are subject to asset-specific risk in a dynamic model of industry equilibrium.

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Learning Millennial Style
Bruce Carlin

The growing use of online educational content and related video services has changed the way people access education, share knowledge, and possibly make life decisions. Here, Carlin – with co-authors Li Jiang and Stephen A. Spiller – characterizes how video content affects individual decision-making and willingness to share in the context of a personal financial decision.

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Volatility Managed Portfolios
Tyler Muir

Managed portfolios that take less risk when volatility is high produce large, positive alphas and increase factor Sharpe ratios by substantial amounts. Muir, together with co-author Alan Moreira, documents a profitable trading strategy that increases stock market exposure in low volatility episodes and reduces exposure in high volatility times.

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Alumni Success

 

Robert Richmond (’16)

Assistant Professor of Finance, NYU Stern School of Business

First academic placement: NYU Stern

In 2016, Robert Richmond earned the Conference on International Finance Best Paper Award (2016), the Cubist Systematic Strategies Ph.D. Candidate Award for Outstanding Research and the Xavier Drèze award for most outstanding Ph.D. research paper. His current research uncovers an economic source of exposure to global risk that drives international asset prices.

Mindy Xiaolan Zhang (’14)

Assistant Professor of Finance, McCombs School of Business, University of Texas, Austin

First academic placement: UT Austin

Mindy Zhang is recipient of the 2014 Trefftzs Award for Best Student Paper, WFA; and the 2014 Yihong Xia Best Paper Award, CICF. She conducts research on macro finance, equilibrium asset pricing, dynamic contracting, dynamic corporate theory, labor and finance.

Tobias J. Moskowitz (’98)

Dean Takahashi Professor of Finance, Yale School of Management

First academic placement: University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Recipient of numerous honors and awards, Tobias "Toby" Moskowitz is one of UCLA Anderson's Inspirational 100 alumni. Moskowitz was named the inaugural Dean Takahashi '80 B.A., '83 M.P.P.M. Professor of Finance at Yale School of Management in 2016. He was previously the Fama Family Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where he had taught since 1998. In 2011, he co-authored the best-selling book Scorecasting, which uses economic principles to explain the hidden side of sports.

Joshua D. Coval (’97)

Jay O. Light Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School

First academic placement: University of Michigan Business School

Joshua Coval's current research investigates the structured finance market and how investor reliance on ratings and unsound pricing models led to the spectacular rise and collapse thereof. His research awards include the 2000 and 2005 Smith-Breeden Prize for the best paper in the Journal of Finance. His research has been featured in The Economist, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, Time, Money Magazine and Financial Times.

William F. Sharpe (’61)

STANCO 25 Professor of Finance, Emeritus, Stanford University

Winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize in Economic Science, William Sharpe was mentored at UCLA by the late Professor J. Fred Weston. Sharpe was one of the originators of the Capital Asset Pricing Model and developed the Sharpe Ratio for investment performance analysis. He co-founded the independent investment advisory firm Financial Engines.