What's Hot in Finance? (2008-2012)

65 Pages Posted: 5 Sep 2012 Last revised: 11 May 2014

See all articles by Utpal Bhattacharya

Utpal Bhattacharya

HKUST Business School

Michael Flores

Indiana University - Kelley School of Business - Department of Finance

Betsy Laydon

Indiana University - Kelley School of Business - Department of Finance

Fangzhou Liu

Shanghai University of Finance and Economics - Department of Finance

Jun Wu

Indiana University - Kelley School of Business - Department of Finance

Date Written: August 29, 2013

Abstract

As in years past, to catalyze the students in my Ph.D. F798 class to think of finance ideas, I asked each one of them to read the abstracts of finance articles published in the last 5 years in JF, JFE, RFS and JFQA. Some general observations from the hard data above and the soft data generated from classroom discussions: 1) Classification into sub-topics is even more difficult than last year. There are more papers published which are not only intra-discipline but also inter-disciplinary. Law and finance is the hottest inter-disciplinary topic. Papers on the crisis are trending down. 2) The ratio between empirical to theory remains steady at 4:1. Theory is trending up in corporate finance, but trending down in asset pricing. 3) In corporate finance, the dominance of the old chestnuts – capital structure and corporate governance – is trending up. 4) In asset pricing, the analysis of pricing of specific assets is trending up. 5) In investments, the number of hedge fund papers is increasing. 6) The death of market microstructure has been exaggerated. Liquidity remains popular. 7) There is a small but steady fraction of banking papers published. 8) Finance journals dominate. Amongst finance journals, JF has regained its position as No 1. 9) Top non-finance journals publish many finance papers. With the notable exception of QJE, these journals have similar impact factors as the top 3 finance journals.

Keywords: asset pricing, corporate finance, investments

JEL Classification: G10

Suggested Citation

Bhattacharya, Utpal and Flores, Michael and Laydon, Betsy and Liu, Fangzhou and Wu, Jun, What's Hot in Finance? (2008-2012) (August 29, 2013). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2142203 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2142203

Utpal Bhattacharya (Contact Author)

HKUST Business School ( email )

Clear Water Bay
Kowloon
Hong Kong

Michael Flores

Indiana University - Kelley School of Business - Department of Finance

1309 E. 10th St.
Bloomington, IN 47405
United States

Betsy Laydon

Indiana University - Kelley School of Business - Department of Finance

1309 E. 10th St.
Bloomington, IN 47405
United States

Fangzhou Liu

Shanghai University of Finance and Economics - Department of Finance ( email )

Shanghai, 200433
China

Jun Wu

Indiana University - Kelley School of Business - Department of Finance

1309 E. 10th St.
Bloomington, IN 47405
United States

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