Professor of the Graduate School
Finance
Expertise and Research Interests
- Structural modeling of credit risk
- Dynamic models of optimal leverage and agency costs
- Optimal investment strategies in the presence of transactions costs
- Performance measurement: beyond mean-variance analysis
- “Adventures of an Academic in Asset Management.” Pembroke Lecture, University of Cambridge (2012)
- “Leverage, Forced Asset Sales, and Market Stability: Lessons from Past Market Crises and the Flash Crash.” Foresight Project Driver: The Future of Computer Trading in Financial Markets (2011)
- “Beyond Mortgages: Equity Financing for Homes.” FIRS Conference, Lisbon (2016)
- “Optimal Portfolio Implementation: Asset Management with Transactions Costs and Capital Gains Taxes” (2013)
- “Structural Models of the Firm: An Underview.” FARFE Conference (2009)
- “Structural Models and the Credit Crisis.” China International Conference in Finance (2009)
- “Financial Synergies and the Optimal Scope of the Firm: Implications for Mergers, Spinoffs, and Structured Finance.” Journal of Finance 62 (2007): 765-807.
- Princeton Lecture Series in Finance: Lecture 1: Pros and Cons of Structural Models: An Introduction
- Princeton Lecture Series in Finance: Lecture 2: A New Structural Model
- Princeton Lecture Series in Finance: Lecture 3: Financial Synergies and the Optimal Scope of the Firm
- “Predictions of Default Probabilities in Structural Models of Debt.” Journal of Investment Management 2, no. 2 (2004).
- “An EBIT-based Model of Optimal Capital Structure,” with R. Goldstein and N. Ju. Journal of Business 74 (2001): 483-512.
- “Corporate Debt Value, Bond Covenants, and Optimal Capital Structure.” Journal of Finance (1994): 1213-1252. (Awarded Stephen A. Ross Prize, 2008)
At Berkeley since 1974
2009-present, Arno Rayner Professor Emeritus of Finance and Management, Haas School of Business
1991 – 2000, Director, Berkeley Program in Finance
1990 – 2008, Arno Rayner Professor of Finance and Management, Haas School of Business
1978 – 1990, Professor, Haas School of Business
1974 – 1978, Associate Professor, Haas School of Business
1968 – 1974, Assistant Professor, Economics, Stanford University
- President, American Finance Association (1997)
- Trustee, Barclays Global Investors Funds (2007-2009)
- Scientific Committee, EuroPlace Institute of Finance
- Fellow, American Finance and Financial Management Associations
- IAQF Financial Engineer of the Year, 2016
- Stephen A. Ross Prize in Financial Economics, 2008. (Given to a significant paper in finance published in the last 15 years.)
- Lifetime Achievement Award, Financial Intermediation Research Society, 2008
- Honorary Doctorate (Doctor honoris causa), University of Paris (Dauphine), 2007
- Graham and Dodd Award, 1999
- Roger Murray Prize, Institute for Quantitative Research in Finance, 1997
- Named “Businessman of the Year” (one of 12) by Fortune Magazine, December 1987
- Corporate Finance, MBA 231
- Dynamic Asset Management, MFE 230K