American Finance Association

The American Finance Association (AFA) is an academic organization whose focus is the study and promotion of knowledge of financial economics. It was formed in 1939. Its main publication, the Journal of Finance, was first published in 1946.

Mission

The purpose of the association is to:

• Act as a mutual association of persons with an interest in finance
• Improve the public understanding of financial problems
• Provide for the exchange of financial ideas through the distribution of the Journal of Finance and other media
• Encourage the study of finance in colleges and universities
• Conduct other activities appropriate for a non-profit, professional society in the field of finance

Administration

The administration of the association is overseen by both officers and a board of advisors. All of these positions are held by faculty at various American universities. The board of directors rotates over time and assists in key decisions and policies.

Journal of Finance

The Journal of Finance is an Academic journal that covers the whole field of finance. It began publication in 1946. According to Journal Citation Reports, it has a 2015 Impact factor of 5.290. The current editorial team is Stefan Nagel (Editor), Philip Bond, Amit Seru, and Wei Xiong. The Journal of Finance, The Review of Financial Studies, and the Journal of Financial Economics are considered to be the top-three finance journals.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Membership

The association currently has approximately 8,000 members who pay dues of $40 per year. The membership must be renewed every calendar year, and is obtained only through written application.

A number of members are also distinguished in the Society of Fellows of the Association. These are members who have made significant contributions to the field of finance. This includes all living past presidents and all future presidents.

Annual meeting

An annual meeting of the association is held every year in January, in conjunction with the American Economic Association and the North American Winter Meetings of the Econometric Society as a part of the Allied Social Sciences Association. The president speaks on a selected topic and there are presentations of various financial papers. The AFA, Western Finance Association Meetings, and Society for Financial Studies Cavalcade are considered to be the three top general finance conferences in the world.^[6]

Recent Annual Meeting AFA sites:

2013 San Diego, California

2012 Chicago, Illinois

2011 Denver, Colorado

2010 Atlanta, Georgia

2009 San Francisco, California

2008 New Orleans, Louisiana

2007 Chicago, Illinois.

2006 Boston, Massachusetts

2005 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

2004 San Diego, California

2003 Washington, D.C.

Past, present and future presidents

Fellows of the American Finance Association

In January 2000, the Board of Directors of the American Finance Association instituted a Society of Fellows of the Association. The purpose of the society is to recognize those members who have made a distinguished contribution to the field of finance. Since Fellows are selected by the membership for their contributions to the field of finance, and since this is the principal criterion for election as president, all living past presidents and all future presidents of the association are designated as Fellows. The list below contains all living past presidents and the Fellows selected since that date. Each year, the Nominating Committee, chaired by the current president, solicits names from the membership and nominates a slate of no more than five candidates from which current Fellows elect a maximum of two new Fellows. Polling of the current Fellows is carried out by the immediate past-president prior to the next annual meeting. As non past president of the American Finance Association, elected Fellows of the American Finance Association are following:

2014 Albert S. “Pete” Kyle

2013 Bengt R. Holmström

2012 Andrei Shleifer

2011 Milton Harris

2010 Douglas T. Breeden

2009 Richard H. Thaler

2008 John C. Cox

2007 Lars Peter Hansen

2006 Robert J. Shiller

2005 Robert F. Engle

2004 Robert E. Lucas, Jr.

2003 Kenneth J. Arrow

2002 Paul A. Samuelson

2001 Eugene F. Fama

Prizes and Awards

Fischer Black Prize

Biennially, the association awards the Fischer Black Prize at its annual meeting. The award, named in honor of economist Fischer Black, recognizes an outstanding young academic whose original research has made a significant contribution to the field of finance.

Brattle Prizes

Annually, the Brattle Prizes are awarded annually for outstanding papers on corporate finance at its annual meeting.

Smith Breeden Prizes

Annually, the association awards the Smith Breeden Prizes for the top three papers in the Journal of Finance in any area other than corporate finance at its annual meeting.

Morgan Stanley-AFA Award for Excellence in Finance

AFA has established a new bi-annual finance award to be granted based on an individual's career achievements in outstanding thought leadership in the field of financial economics. Formally it is the Morgan Stanley-American Finance Association Award for Excellence in Finance. The Award will be granted by AFA beginning in 2008 and continuing for 5 bi-annual periods. There shall only be one recipient of the Award in any bi-annual period.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) and the American Finance Association (AFA) are pleased to announce that Eugene F. Fama, the Robert R. McCormick Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business, has been chosen as the first recipient of the Morgan Stanley-AFA Award for Excellence in Finance. Professor Fama is widely regarded as the father of the efficient market theory and is world-renowned for his original theoretical and empirical work on portfolio theory, asset pricing, and capital structure. The Award comes with a $200,000 cash grant to an eligible institution to be used in support of research in the financial field of the recipient's choosing. Professor Fama selected the University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business, to receive the gift.

The AFA and Morgan Stanley announce Michael C. Jensen as Recipient of the 2009 Award for Excellence in Financial Economics. Professor Jensen is one of the most cited scholars in the social sciences and has produced more than 100 scientific papers in addition to hundreds of articles on economics, finance and business-related topics. Additionally, he co-founded the Journal of Financial Economics, one of the top scientific journals in financial economics and the Social Science Research Network (SSRN), rated number 1 of 400 worldwide open source repositories for scholarly research. Professor Jensen has selected the National Bureau of Economic Research, Harvard Business School and the Simon School of Business at the University of Rochester as recipients of the $200,000 cash grant.

Notes

External links

• American Finance Association
  • Morgan Stanley AFA Award