I grew up in Dayton, Ohio, and received a bachelor's degree in mathematics and physics from Indiana University. After receiving a doctorate in economics from Yale University, I taught briefly at Princeton University before returning to Yale where he became a tenured Full Professor. I left Yale to join the faculty of Washington University, initially as the John E. Simon Professor of Finance and currently as the Boatmens Bancshares Professor of Banking and Finance.
Most of my research has provided fundamental theoretical analysis of practical problems. The Diamond-Dybvig model, derived with Doug Diamond at Chicago, is a pillar of modern banking theory, and after twenty-five years it is still used widely by academics and regulators and is one of the most widely cited papers in the Finance and Economics literatures. I have always worked on a wide range of topics. My recent work has focused more on investments and corporate governance. My research on asset allocation and spending rules for educational endowments was awarded the first Commonfund Prize for "original research with strong potential to influence practice," and my work with Bill Marshall on pricing long bonds was awarded a Graham and Dodd scroll for excellence in financial writing. In all, I have more than 30 publications in top academic journals.
I pride myself for my commitment to teaching in the Olin School's various programs, and several of my former doctoral students have become prominent scholars.
I recently served as president of the Western Finance Association and I have held many editorial positions at leading journals. I have also served on Washington University's Investments Committee and the National Endowment Survey Advisory Committee of the National Association of College and University Business Officers.
I have done a lot of consulting work over the years, mostly applying quantitative models to practical problems in investments, especially in fixed income and asset allocation. I have also worked on a diverse set of problems, including pricing of a metals derivative offered by a company, examing charges of a violation of anti-dumping agreements, determination of the cost of capital, and determining whether recorded commodoties trades are genuine or just a paper trail created to perpetrate a tax fraud.
In recent years, I have spent a significant time visiting the Far East, mostly China. I am now spending two months per year visiting Xinan Caida (Southwest University of Finance and Economics) in Chengdu, Sichuan, China. There, I am a Chang Jiang Scholar and I am also the director of a new Institute for Financial Studies. I have also visited Singapore Management University, Changjiang Graduate School of Business (CKGSB), Beida (Peking University), and Ajou University (Seoul, South Korea). I have had shorter visits for seminars or conferences at Tsinghua University, National University of Singapore, Jiaotong University in Shanghai (at SAIF new Shanghai Advanced Insitute in Finance), NTU in Singapore, and Zhongyang School of Finance and Economics (Beijing). I was a keynote speaker at meetings of the Five-star Forum in Beijing and the Chinese Finance Association in Chengdu.
Some of my leisure activities include playing jazz and blues keyboards and playing some traditional instruments such as the erhu and the hulusi. Recently, I have become more interested in physical fitness, including weightlifting, Taiji, Qigong, and Tui Shou (push hands).