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
VMH 2333 ABC
April 11 
10:30 a.m. – Noon
Torben Andersen 
Northwestern University
VMH 1333
April 25 
10:30 a.m. - Noon
Bo Bian 
University of British Columbia
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

March 2, 2023
The Rise in Four-figure Car Loan Payments Could Mean a Recession Is Coming

In the fourth quarter of last year, the number of Americans paying $1,000 a month or more for a vehicle hit a record high of 15.7%.

Read the article : The Rise in Four-figure Car Loan Payments Could Mean a Recession Is Coming
February 23, 2023
How to Bolster Climate Scenario Analysis
The Federal Reserve Board has engaged six of the biggest U.S. banks in a pilot Climate Scenario Analysis (CSA) to assess and “advance the ability of supervisors and banks to analyze and manage emerging climate-related financial risks.”
Read the article : How to Bolster Climate Scenario Analysis
February 23, 2023
Is South Africa Taking a Financial Risk by Conducting Naval Exercises with Russia?
“If I were advising, I would think that it would be unwise for South Africa to conduct this exercise, especially in the vicinity of the anniversary.” That’s University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business William E. Mayer Chair Professor of Finance, Lemma Senbet reacting to South Africa’s…
Read the article : Is South Africa Taking a Financial Risk by Conducting Naval Exercises with Russia?
January 26, 2023
A “Richcession” May Be Ahead
Wall Street Journal reporter Justin Lahart has coined the term “richcession” to explain what might happen should a recession occur this year. According to him, the well-heeled would take a bigger hit than usual, even if we manage to narrowly escape an economic downturn.
Read the article : A “Richcession” May Be Ahead
December 7, 2022
Risk Lessons from FTX
FTX postmortems have included Axios describing the cryptocurrency exchange as a “house of cards” comparable to Enron, Theranos, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Madoff Investment Securities. Plus, Moody’s writes the collapse “will radically transform the crypto ecosystem, further shaking trust and…
Read the article : Risk Lessons from FTX
November 10, 2022
How COVID-19 Showed the Cost of Doing Business Globally
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, multinational companies didn’t have to think twice about increasingly moving toward firm globalization. But the crisis amplified the vulnerabilities of doing business across borders. And now, new research from Maryland Smith is contextualizing the numbers to show the…
Read the article : How COVID-19 Showed the Cost of Doing Business Globally
October 27, 2022
‘Storm Clouds Over the World Economy’: Smith’s Lemma Senbet Discusses Implications for Africa
Voice of America tapped Smith’s Lemma W. Senbet to discuss the stakes for Africa at the IMF-World Bank Group Annual Meetings where policymakers and industry leaders representing about 190 countries engaged on the state of the world economy.
Read the article : ‘Storm Clouds Over the World Economy’: Smith’s Lemma Senbet Discusses Implications for Africa
October 18, 2022
Public Firms Are Not Shortsighted and Respond More to Investment Opportunities Than Do Private Firms
Many analysts of financial markets are concerned that financial markets provide managers with economically harmful incentives.
Read the article : Public Firms Are Not Shortsighted and Respond More to Investment Opportunities Than Do Private Firms
October 13, 2022
Musk’s Twitter Reversal: Smith Experts Weigh Financial, Operational Implications
Elon Musk’s offer to proceed with a $44 billion acquisition of Twitter has the two sides working to close the deal ahead of the recently extended court deadline of October 28.
Read the article : Musk’s Twitter Reversal: Smith Experts Weigh Financial, Operational Implications
September 29, 2022
A Climate Change Call to Arms for Risk Modelers
Hurricane Ian is now a tropical storm, but estimates for the storm’s Florida landfall included a million-plus homes at risk for damage, with overall damages and losses expected to top $67 billion, according to Bloomberg.
Read the article : A Climate Change Call to Arms for Risk Modelers