In a remarkable streak, Carroll School faculty have walked off with six of these prestigious awards in the past six years
For the second year in a row, two of the most coveted awards in academic finance have gone to Carroll School of Management faculty. Two assistant professors of finance were among just six recipients of the听prestigious awards for research given this year by the American Finance Association.
Over the past six years, the Carroll School has racked up six of these prizes. That is a rare streak: Ever since the awards were instituted in 1989, only five universities have walked off with as many of them in as many years, according to an analysis of the finance association鈥檚 . Those would be Harvard, MIT, University of Chicago, New York University鈥攁nd now, Boston College.
Simcha Barkai, assistant professor of finance, won the American Finance Association鈥檚 award for best paper in non-corporate finance.
The association publishes The听Journal of Finance鈥攃onsidered the preeminent peer-reviewed publication in its field鈥攁nd grants awards for papers published in that journal during the previous year. Award winners are announced at the association鈥檚 annual meeting, held virtually this year in early January.
The two Carroll School professors who continued the streak are Simcha Barkai and Rawley Heimer. Barkai took the top spot among three scholars awarded the Dimensional Fund Advisors Prize, given to papers in the category of non-corporate finance. The prize went for his October 2020 article, 鈥�,鈥� which he authored solo鈥攁rguing that diminished competition among U.S. firms since the 1980s is the primary cause for a decline in workers鈥� wages during that time. In many industries, a handful of companies harbor nearly all of the economic power, enabling them to cut labor costs even as their workers鈥� productivity has increased鈥攁nd pass more and more of their profits along to shareholders instead, Barkai found.
Rawley Heimer, assistant professor of finance and winner of a Distinguished Paper prize in the same category as Barkai.
The Dimensional Fund Advisors Prize recognizes one 鈥淏est Paper,鈥� given this year to Barkai, and two 鈥淒istinguished Papers.鈥� Heimer and his coauthors took home the latter honor for 鈥�,鈥� which reveals a surprising connection between a person鈥檚 age and propensity to save. Young people, Heimer found, falsely overestimated their risk of dying from a rare event like a car accident or animal attack and under-saved by 26 percent, while older people, expecting to live longer than actuarial data suggests, resisted dipping into their savings.
Best-paper winners of the Dimensional Fund Advisors Prize receive a cash award of $25,000. Distinguished papers net $10,000 each.
鈥淚t is remarkable for two scholars from the same school to receive the awards in a single year,鈥� said Ronnie Sadka, who serves as chair of the Finance Department in addition to being the inaugural holder of the Haub Family Professorship and senior associate dean of faculty at the Carroll School. 鈥淭o achieve that in two consecutive years, though, that is incredible.鈥�
Sadka was referring to听three Carroll School professors听who received very similar awards at the American Finance Association鈥檚 conference last year. Barkai follows in the footsteps of David Solomon, associate professor of finance and David J. Mastrocola Faculty Fellow, who received the same first-place Dimensional Fund Advisors Prize for his 2019 paper, 鈥�.鈥� And two (now-former) associate professors in the department, Andrey Malenko and Nadya Malenko, received a Distinguished Paper award in the other category, corporate finance, for听听they published jointly.听
Six Years, Six Prizes
Sadka also pointed to Jeffrey Pontiff, professor and James F. Cleary Chair in Finance, who won the first-place Dimensional Fund Advisors Prize (then called the Amundi Smith Breeden Prize) in 2016.听Pontiff鈥檚 winning paper听remains atop The听Journal of Finance鈥檚听听five years after its publication. In addition,听Vyacheslav (Slava) Fos, an associate professor and Hillenbrand Family Faculty Fellow in the Finance Department, won a Distinguished Paper award in 2015, also in non-corporate finance.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 six of these top finance awards, in six years. There鈥檚 no other school that鈥檚 had a better streak than that, other than the University of Chicago,鈥� Sadka noted, pointing to the five schools of management (now including the Carroll School) that have accomplished the feat any time since the American Finance Association began handing out the awards 32 years ago.
During the past six years, only New York University鈥檚 Stern School of Business has performed as well as the Carroll School (with six prizes). Altogether, only four business schools鈥攁t Stanford, Columbia, NYU, and Boston College鈥攈ave taken as many as four of the prizes during these six years. 鈥淎ll of that demonstrates the results we鈥檝e been able to achieve in our department through a multi-year effort by the faculty, with constant support from our dean, provost, and president, as well as our generous alumni,鈥� Sadka said.
The stream of honors from the American Finance Association and its leading journal are not the only markers of a finance program continuing its rise. The department hit an all-time high earlier this year with its听#7 ranking听in听U.S. News & World Report鈥檚 鈥淏est Undergraduate Finance Programs鈥� of 2021.
鈥淥ur Finance Department and its achievements go to the heart of what we鈥檝e been doing at the Carroll School to advance our research mission,鈥� said John and Linda Powers Family Dean Andy Boynton. 鈥淲e鈥檝e built a community of first-rate scholars who generate original scholarship and contribute meaningfully to their disciplines and the practice of management,鈥� Boynton explained. 鈥淎nd we鈥檝e done that all through our culture鈥攅ncouraging faculty to share their research and engage in the kind of dialogue that generates new ideas and gives energy and enthusiasm to the work.鈥�
Heimer echoed Boynton鈥檚 sentiment in an email to colleagues about his award. Thanking his department for their valuable feedback on revisions and the additional funding he received for final-stage research, Heimer wrote, 鈥淎n environment like ours is essential to being able to execute papers that are both exhaustive and exhausting!鈥澨�
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