Mission Board By-Laws Best Paper Awards

Best Papers Awards

Every year since 2011, the Finance Theory Group awards prizes for the best theory papers on the finance job market. A committee appointed by the Board is tasked with evaluating all job market papers nominated by current FTG members and choosing the winning authors, who are then invited to join the FTG. Below is the list of past award winners:

2025

First Prize

  • George Nurisso

    University of Washington, joining University of Florida

    "Learning by Lending Securities"

2024

First Prize

  • Xiaobo Yu

    Columbia, joining University of Colorado Boulder

    "A General Theory of Holdouts"

Runner Up

  • Patrick Blonien

    Rice University, joining Carnegie Mellon University

    "Size Discovery in Slow Markets"

2023

Co-Winner of the First Prize

  • Daniel Chen

    Stanford, joining Princeton

    "The Market for Attention"

Co-Winner of the First Prize

  • Agathe Pernoud

    Stanford, joining Chicago Booth

    "How Competition Shapes Information in Auctions"

2022

First Prize

  • Dan Luo

    Stanford GSB, joining Chinese University of Hong Kong after a postdoc at the Fama-Miller Center at the University of Chicago

    "Raising Capital from Investor Syndicates with Strategic Communication"

Runner Up

  • Joanne Juan Chen

    LSE, joining Boston University

    "Optimal Managerial Authority"

2021

First Prize

  • Yue Yuan

    LSE, joining Tsinghua University

    "Competing with Security Design"

Runner Up

  • Simon Mayer

    Erasmus University Rotterdam and Tinbergen Institute, joining HEC Paris after a postdoc at the Fama-Miller Center at the University of Chicago

    "Financing Breakthroughs under Failure Risk"

2020

Co-Winner of the First Prize

  • Christopher Clayton and Andreas Schaab

    Harvard University, joining Yale SOM

    "Multinational Banks and Financial Stability"

Co-Winner of the First Prize

  • Magdalena Rola-Janicka

    University of Amsterdam, joining Tilberg University

    "The Political Economy of Prudential Regulation"

2019

First Prize

  • Brandon Han

    LSE, joining University of Maryland

    “Dynamic Information Acquisition and Asset Prices”

Runner Up

  • Lin Shen

    Wharton, joining INSEAD

    “Capital Flows in the Financial System and the Supply of Credit”

2018

First Prize

  • Deeksha Gupta

    Wharton, joining Carnegie Mellon University

    "Too Much Skin in the Game"

Runner Up

  • Yiming Ma

    Stanford, joining Columbia Business School

    “Intermediation in the Inter-bank lending market”

2017

Co-Winner of the First Prize

  • Piotr Dworczak

    Stanford University, joining Northwestern University

    "Mechanism Design with Aftermarkets: Cutoff Mechanisms"

Co-Winner of the First Prize

  • Chaojun Wang

    Stanford University, joining the Wharton School

    "Core-Periphery Trading Networks"

2016

First Prize

  • Yao Zeng

    Harvard University, joining the University of Washington

    "A Dynamic Theory of Mutual Fund Runs and Liquidity Management"

Runner Up

  • Selman Erol

    University of Pennsylvania, joining Carnegie Mellon University

    "Network Hazard and Bailouts"

2015

First Prize

  • Pavel Zryumov

    Stanford University, joining the Wharton School

    "Dynamic Adverse Selection: Time-Varying Market Conditions and Endogenous Entry"

Runner Up

  • Benjamin HĂ©bert

    Harvard University, joining Stanford University

    "Moral Hazard and the Optimality of Debt"

2014

First Prize

  • Maryam Farboodi

    University of Chicago, joining Princeton University

    "Intermediation and Voluntary Exposure to Counterparty Risk"

Runner Up (tie)

  • Will Cong and Victoria Vanasco

    Stanford University, joining the University of Chicago and UC Berkeley, joining Stanford University

    "Auctions of Real Options" and "Information Acquisition vs. Liquidity in Financial Markets"

2013

First Prize

  • Felipe Varas

    Stanford University, joining Duke University

    "Contracting Timely Delivery with Hard to Verify Quality"

Runner Up

  • Sebastian Di Tella

    MIT, joining Stanford University

    "Uncertainty Shocks and Balance Sheet Recessions"

2012

First Prize

  • Ming Yang

    Princeton University, joining Duke University

    "Optimality of Securitized Debt with Endogenous and Flexible Information Acquisition"

Runner Up

  • Matteo Maggiori

    UC Berkeley, joining NYU

    "Financial Intermediation, International Risk Sharing, and Reserve Currencies”

2011

Runner Up

  • John Zhu

    UC Berkeley, joining the Wharton School

    "Sticky Incentives and Dynamic Agency: Optimal Contracting with Perks and Shirking"

First Prize

  • Bradyn Breon-Drish

    UC Berkeley, joining Stanford University

    "Asymmetric Information in Financial Markets: Anything Goes"