Biography

Bruce Carlin’s route to UCLA Anderson as a professor of finance may be one of the school’s more circuitous ones. Carlin, who comes from a family of medical practitioners, had a successful career as a professor of surgery at Washington University in St. Louis. While practicing surgery, he pursued an MBA with the goal to learn more about health care management so that he would be able to take on future leadership positions at the medical school.

However, Carlin was so stimulated by the fields of finance and economics that he felt he had missed his calling and decided to pursue an academic career in finance. He left surgery and moved to North Carolina to pursue a Ph.D. in finance at Duke University. Since that time, Carlin has enjoyed a fulfilling career and has never looked back. He has thoroughly enjoyed the fruits of the risk that he took in leaving the surgical profession, and says that this decision made all the difference in his life.

Since joining UCLA Anderson in 2007, Carlin has focused his research in the areas of consumer finance, asset pricing and corporate finance. His expertise spans distressed portfolio liquidation, information and asset pricing, price complexity in retail financial markets, consumer financial literacy and strategic financial disclosure. Carlin is a director of the Financial Research Association and a past associate editor of the Review of Financial Studies, and he frequently organizes meetings of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Carlin has been recognized for his teaching acumen as well as his research, earning a number of awards and citations. He has also had the opportunity to teach students at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, Duke University and the University of North Carolina.

Carlin has served as an expert witness in matters involving consumer and corporate finance, health care, life sciences, product liability and valuation. He has testified in a variety of venues, including U.S. district courts, state superior court and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).

Carlin is a family man and places a premium on spending time with his wife Nikki and daughter Zoe. In addition, he has a lot of hobbies. He is a master swimmer at UCLA, a whiskey connoisseur, an avid poker player and an active member of the Water Buffalo Club, a foundation dedicated to raising money for indigent children in Los Angeles. In his spare time, you might find him playing his blues guitar.