Alumna works to strengthen Michigan’s international alliances
Katelyn Wilcox (B.A. Finance '10) answers our questions and shares advice for fellow Spartans.
The Department of Finance in the Broad College of Business prepares students to look beyond quantitative reasoning in order to discover innovative solutions to the most prominent issues confronting today’s (and tomorrow’s) businesses. Our flexible programs and curriculum specializations in corporate finance and financial markets allow students to focus on their specific areas of interest within finance.
Welcome to the Department of Finance in the Eli Broad College of Business. We invite you as prospective or current Broad College students to learn about the dynamic world of finance. While you will become grounded in finance fundamentals, you will also grapple with the underlying causes of economic problems and the many risks businesses face in today’s complex global world. You will learn from our innovative faculty who foster a collaborative learning environment with their dedication to student success. Insights and findings from faculty’s cutting-edge research will inform your discussions.
The department encourages our students to participate in co-curricular opportunities offered by the Financial Markets Institute, the Center for Venture Capital, Private Equity and Entrepreneurial Finance, and the Student Investment Fund. Further explore your interests through one of our student organizations: Finance Association, Spartan Global Development Fund, Student Investment Association and the Wealth Management Association. In addition to engaging with peers who share similar interests, these organizations provide wonderful opportunities for leadership development.
The department welcomes contact from employers interested in learning about our student talent. If you would like to learn more, please contact Russell Palmer Career Management Center.
We invite you to learn more about how the Department of Finance is helping Eli Broad College realize its vision of becoming a top-of-mind business school and transform students into the leaders of tomorrow.
The Department of Finance offers bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs, all designed to account for curriculum specialization to a student’s particular interests in finance. Our programs also prepare students for roles in the related fields of marketing, production, supply chain and human resources. This tailored approach empowers students to achieve their unique career goals in finance and across all areas of business.
Research areas cover all major areas of finance including corporate and behavioral finance, contracting and asset pricing.
Explore ProgramEmerge with a breadth of financial knowledge, from fundamental analysis to asset management, and hone skills in corporate strategies and leadership.
Explore ProgramThe discipline of finance comprises corporate financial management, management of financial institutions, and investments. An understanding of financial concepts, financial instruments and financial management decision-making are vital to each. Employment opportunities exist in industrial and brokerage firms, public utilities, banks, insurance companies, credit unions and agencies of government.
Explore ProgramIdeal for students pursuing careers as underwriters, claim adjusters, agents or brokers in the insurance industry, or careers in risk management within financial institutions.
Explore MinorThe Financial Planning and Wealth Management program is designed to provide students with a solid understanding of the concepts and techniques used by wealth management advisors to help individual and institutional clients. As the industry continues to evolve, students will gain the necessary skills to help firms meet the expanding needs of their client base.
Explore ProgramThe Financial Markets Institute (FMI) provides comprehensive training to a select group of highly motivated finance and accounting students at Broad. Scholars are offered invaluable professional opportunities, such as co-managing a multi-million dollar investment fund and visiting financial services firms across the United States. Based on student preparation, the institute provides employers with the confidence that FMI scholars have the technical and soft skills necessary to make immediate contributions to their firms.
“Multinational Finances” (2012)
“A Fresh Look at Cross-Border Valuation and FX Hedging Decisions” with T. O’Brien and G. Utete, Journal of Applied Finance (2013).
“The Relative Contribution of Conditional Mean and Volatility in Bivariate Returns to International Stock Market Indices” with K. Okada, Applied Financial Economics (2009).
“Efficiency and Inefficiency in Thinly Traded Stock Markets: Kuwait and Saudi Arabia” with S.K. Malaikah, Journal of Banking and Finance (1992).
“The Forecast Accuracy of Individual Analysts” with L. H. P. Lang, Journal of Accounting Research (1991).
“Nonsynchronous Security Trading and Market Index Correlation” with M. D. Atchison and R. Simonds, Journal of Finance (1987).
“Fund Managers Under Pressure: The Rationale and Determinants of Secondary Buyouts” with S. Arcot, J. Gaspar, and U. Hege, Journal of Financial Economics (2015).
“Privatization with Political Constraints and Agency Costs: Auctions versus Private Negotiations” with K. John and A. Ravid, Journal of Banking and Finance (2007).
“The Dynamics of Management-Shareholder Conflict,” Review of Financial Studies (1999).
“Why Firms Merge and Then Divest: A Theory of Financial Synergy” with A. Lynch, Journal of Business (1999).
“Optimal Financial Contracting: Debt versus Outside Equity,” Review of Financial Studies (1998).
“Defeasance of Control Rights”, with C. Bienz (NHH Norwegian School of Economics) and A. Faure-Grimaud (London School of Economics).
“Optimal Financial Contracting in Venture Capital Funds”, with M. Rezaei (University of California-Berkeley).
“Support, Oppose or Rubberstamp? A Theory of Collective Decisionmaking in Corporate Boards”, with N. Khanna (Michigan State University).
“Hand in Hand or Hand in Bind? A Theory of Later-Stage Syndication of Venture Capital Investments”, with K. Garrison (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and S. C. Myer (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
“Optimal Financial Contracting: Strategic Default and Debt Maturity”.
“Where the Heart Is: Information Production and the Home Bias” with J. Cornaggia and
K. Cornaggia, Management Science (2019).
“Credit Ratings and the Cost of Municipal Financing” with J. Cornaggia and K.
Cornaggia, Review of Financial Studies (2018).
“Are Some Clients More Equal than Others? An Analysis of Asset Management Companies’ Execution Costs” with A. Ben-Rephael, Review of Finance (2018).
“It Depends on Where You Search: Institutional Investor Attention and Under-reaction to News” with A. Ben-Rephael and Z. Da, Review of Financial Studies (2017).
“Key Human Capital” with S. Yonker, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis (2017).
“Does Common Analyst Coverage Explain Excess Comovement?”, Journal of Financial and
Quantitative Analysis (2016).
“How Quickly do Equity Prices Converge to Intrinsic Value?” with D. Capozza, Journal of
Investment Management (2010).
“Predictability in Equilibrium: The Price Dynamics of Real Estate Investment Trusts” with D. Capozza, Real Estate Economics (2007).
“Appraisal, Agency, and Atypicality: Evidence from Manufactured Homes” with D. Capozza and T. Thomson, Real Estate Economics (2005).
“Credit Rating Agency Fees: Pay to Play or Pay for Work?” with J. Cornaggia and K.
Cornaggia (2019).
“Ownership and Governance Style: New Evidence from Nonfinancial Blockholders” with M. Schwartz-Ziv and J. Weston (2019).
“Government Spending and Local Demographics: Evidence from Moody’s Municipal Ratings
Recalibration” with J. Cornaggia, M. Gustafson and Z. Ye (2019).
“Is Financial News Politically Biased?” with E. Goldman and N. Gupta (2019).
“Information Consumption and Asset Pricing” with A. Ben-Rephael, B. Carlin, and Z. Da (2018).
“Who Pays Attention to SEC Form 8-K?” with A. Ben-Rephael, Z. Da and P. Easton (2018).
“Public and Private Information: Firm Disclosure, SEC Letters, and the JOBS Act” with S. Agarwal and S. Gupta (2018).
“Indirect Costs of the JOBS Act: Disclosures, Information Asymmetry and Post-IPO Liquidity” with S. Gupta (2014).
“Tell It like It Is: Disclosed Risks and Factor Portfolios” (2014).
“Investment Based Valuation and Managerial Expectations” (2010).
“Local Dividend Clienteles” with B. Becker and S. Weisbenner, Journal of Finance (2011).
“Individual Investor Mutual Fund Flows” with S. Weisbenner, Journal of Financial Economics (2009).
“Casual Community Efforts and Stock Market Participation” with J. Brown, P. Smith, and S. Weisbenner, Journal of Finance (2008).
“Information Diffusion Effects in Individual Investors’ Common Stock Purchases: Covet Thy Neighbors’ Investment Choices” with S. Weisbenner, Review of Financial Studies (2007).
“Tax-Motivated Trading by Individual Investors” American Economic Review (2005).
“Reaching for Dividends” with Z. Sun, forthcoming Journal of Monetary Economics (2019).
“Trade less and exit overcrowded markets: Lessons from international mutual funds” with T. Dyakov and M. Verbeek, Review of Finance (2019).
“Active Fundamental Performance” with L. Zheng, Review of Financial Studies (2018).
“Does Herding Behavior Reveal Skill? An Analysis of Mutual Fund Performance” with M. Verardo, Journal of Finance (2018).
“Investor Flows and Fragility in Corporate Bond Fund” with I. Goldstein and D. Ng, Journal of Financial Economics (2017).
“Tail Risk and Asset Prices” with B. Kelly, Review of Financial Studies (2014).
“Dispersion in Beliefs among Active Mutual Funds and the Cross-Section of Stock Returns” with Z. Sun, Journal of Financial Economics (2014).
“Information Content when Mutual Funds Deviate from Benchmarks” with Y. Wang and M. Verbeek, Management Science (2014).
“Posturing and Holdup in Innovation” with R. Mathews, in Review of Financial Studies (2016).
“Can Herding Improve Investment Decisions?” with R. Mathews, Rand Journal of Economics (2011).
“Rewarding Disagreement for Optimal Decisions” with A. Peivandi and M. Schroder (2019).
“Crowding Out Skill in Venture Capital” with R. Matthews (2019).
“The Impermanence of Democracy: Intellectual Capital versus Capital Wealth” with T. Zhou (2019).
“The Evolution of Inversion Strategies: Role of Law Changes and Managerial Agency” with T. Zhou (2019).
“Making Boards More Effective: Independent Directors, Optimal Incentives, and Shareholder Say-on-Pay” with Z. Fluck (2014).
“Rational Price Manipulations By Stockholders” with J. Marietta-Westburg (2013).
“Are Most Democracies Temporal? Wealth Creation versus Wealth Appropriation” with Z. Fluck (2012).
“Concentration and Market Power: Is Big Necessarily Bad?” with S. Tice (2010).
“Short-Sale Constraints, Information Acquisition, and Asset Prices” with M. Nezafat and Q. Wang, Journal of Economic Theory (2017).
“Linked Recursive Preferences and Optimality” with S. Levental and S. Sinha, Mathematical Finance (2016).
“A Simple Proof of Functional Itôs Lemma for Semimartingales with an Application” with S. Sinha and S. Levental, Statistics and Probability Letters (2013).
“Optimal Debt Contracts and Product Market Competition with Replacement” with N. Khanna, Journal of Economic Theory (2010).
“Loss Averse Preferences, Performance, and Career Success of Institutional Investors” joint with A. Bodnaruk, Review of Financial Studies (2016).
“Captive Finance and Firm’s Competitiveness” joint with A. Bodnaruk and W. O’Brien, Journal of Corporate Finance (2016).
“Style representation and portfolio choice” joint with M. Massa and A. Stekhona, Journal of Financial Markets (2015).
“Alliances and Corporate Governance” joint with A. Bodnaruk and M. Massa, Journal of Financial Economics (2013).
“Do Small Shareholders Count?” with M. Massa and E. Kandal, Journal of Financial Economics (2011).
“Is College a Focal Point of Investor Life” with M. Massa, Review of Finance (2011).
“Household Production and Asset Prices” with Z. Da and W. Yang, Management Science (2015).
“Are Mutual Funds Sitting Ducks?” with S. Shive, Journal of Financial Economics (2013).
“Liquidity Backstop, Corporate Borrowings and Real Effects” with P. Gao, Journal of Finance (2012).
“The Choice of Corporate Liquidity and Corporate Governance,” Review of Financial Studies (2009).
Members of the Finance Advisory Board contribute to the activities of the Department of Finance in many different ways, such as providing job opportunities (full-time positions and internships), getting involved with the team of students who manage the Student Investment Fund (SIF) and advising the department chair. There are also opportunities to mentor students and to interact with the Financial Markets Institute (FMI).
The Finance Advisory Board meets twice annually (typically October and February), and part of each meeting is devoted to discussing the Student Investment Fund’s performance with the student managers and the rationale behind their buys and sells. The Finance Advisory Board’s job is to ask challenging questions and provide advice and insights to advance the student managers’ knowledge.
The Center for Venture Capital, Private Equity and Entrepreneurial Finance (CVCPEEF) integrates financial thinking and strategic decision-making with innovation and entrepreneurship via research and education across the university, and in the venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) community around the world.
The Financial Analysis Lab provides the opportunity for hands-on training in financial modeling and valuation. The lab’s hardware and software not only emulate a real trading room, but also enable a dynamic instructional setting. The lab is equipped with dual-screen computers and a number of Bloomberg terminals.
Lab Hours and ContactThe Broad College of Business is a CFA University Affiliation Program Partner of the CFA Institute, a global membership organization that awards the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®) designation.
The CFA Program sets a standard for developing the skills, standards, competence, and integrity of financial analysts, portfolio managers, investment advisors, and other investment professionals worldwide. It is widely considered the investment profession’s most rigorous credentialing program.
See Program BenefitsFull-Time MBA students and undergraduates manage the Student Investment Fund (SIF) as members of the college’s Security Analysis class (FI 457/FI 857). Under the instruction of Stephen Schiestel and using the tools of the Financial Analysis Laboratory, the students master the essentials of portfolio management, stock selection and stock performance evaluation. They continuously monitor the fund and ensure that its stated security selection discipline is maintained.
Learn about the SIF