Research

The research pursued by the Centre spans all areas of modern finance but can be broadly grouped into the three main topics: International Financial Markets, Asset Pricing and Risk Management, and Corporate Finance and Governance.

International Financial Markets

The liberalization and deregulation of international capital markets have thoroughly transformed financial practice as well as academic thought. McGill's finance group has a longstanding tradition of excellence in international finance. Early work by McGill faculty in the 1970s and 1980s effectively established the field of emerging market finance, which is now a vibrant subfield of finance including its own set of conferences and journals dedicated to the subject. McGill continues to be on the forefront of academic thinking in the area of globalization in financial markets.

Asset Pricing and Risk Management

The turbulence in world financial markets has fostered an enormous interest from practitioners and academics alike in the development of new tools for security valuation and risk management. Previous incidents such as the burst of the equity market bubble of the late 1990's or financial disasters of Orange County and LTCM underscore the need for a better understanding of the dynamics of asset returns and risks. McGill finance researchers apply modern statistical techniques in developing better models for valuing assets and managing market and other types of risks.

Corporate Finance and Governance

The plethora of recent corporate scandals has, once again, served as a reminder of the importance of managerial control and corporate transparency. McGill's research in corporate finance and governance is aimed at identifying the factors that constitute an optimal governance system. In particular, research areas include the relation between corporate governance and corporate diversification, the role of capital markets in disciplining managers, and the role of institutional investors in corporate governance. Research in this field at McGill has a decidedly international flavor.