Faculty News

Finance Professor Jeffrey H. Bergstrand was elected president of the International Economics and Finance Society (IEFS) in December, a recognition by his peers of his extensive contributions to international finance and economics research. Bergstrand, who also is the associate dean of Graduate Business Programs, is a top researcher worldwide with expertise in international trade, foreign direct investment, trade and investment policies, and exchange rates.

The IEFS is an international organization of academic and professional economists with interests in the areas of international trade, foreign direct investment, migration, international finance and open-economy macroeconomics.

Dodd-Frank Close Up

In 2013, the Center for the Study of Financial Regulation focused its annual conference on the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, a sweeping piece of legislation passed by Congress in 2010 largely in response to the financial crisis. In November, MIT Press published transcripts from the conference, “Perspectives on Dodd-Frank and Finance,” edited by Center Director Paul Schultz.

In this book, experts on Dodd-Frank and financial regulation — academics, regulators and practitioners — discuss the ways that the law is likely to succeed and where it will come up short. The contributors also consider the broader context of regulatory issues: banking reform, the regulation of derivatives, mortgage reform and the Volcker Rule, among other topics.

Award Winning Research

Finance professors Timothy Loughran (left) and Bill McDonald won the inaugural Hillcrest Behavioral Finance Award for their paper, “The Use of Word Lists in Textual Analysis.” The paper utilizes Big Data techniques to study methods of assessing the tone of business documents as part of stock selection analysis.

The Hillcrest Behavioral Finance Award seeks to recognize excellence in research through the selection of a current non-published academic paper on the subject of behavioral finance. Judging criteria includes significance of the paper to the field of behavioral finance; the extent to which the paper contained a new idea; greatest impact to the professional investment community; use of appropriate methodological rigor; and clarity of writing the paper or the presentation.

Malpass Honored (MBA ’86, ’84)

Scott Malpass, vice president and chief investment officer at the University of Notre Dame, was awarded an honorary doctoral degree from the University of Portland. The university noted Malpass’ success in partnering with “the most sophisticated investment management organizations throughout the world, which has allowed the Notre Dame endowment to achieve top-tier investment performance over both short- and long-term time periods.”

Malpass serves as a concurrent assistant professor of finance in the Mendoza College of Business, and helped develop the College’s signature Applied Investment Management course for outstanding students in finance. He recently joined a group of veteran professional investors to establish a not-for-profit company called Catholic Investment Services, which assists in managing the endowments of all types of Catholic organizations.