Christopher Schwarz, PhD, Paul Merage School of Business, UC Irvine

Christopher Schwarz is a Professor of Finance at the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California Irvine as well as the Faculty Director for the Center for Investment and Wealth Management. His research interests include the management, disclosure and operational risk of the investment fund industry, the impact of manager incentives and structure on investment fund performance, and the behavior of retail investors and retail market structure. His research has been published in such leading academic journals as the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies and the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis. It has been cited by the New York Times, LA Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Bloomberg and Barron’s as well as appeared on CNBC and included in testimony before the U.S. Congress House Financial Services Committee.

Chris also provides a number of economic and financial forecasts in the community as well as to Fortune 500 companies. Prior to arriving at UCI, Christopher received his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, during which he was also a Visiting Doctoral Fellow at Yale University’s International Center of Finance. He received his B.S. from Babson College in Wellesley, MA.

Selected Publications

“The ‘Actual Retail Price’ of Equity Trades” with Brad Barber, Xing Huang, Philippe Jorion, and Terrance Odean, Forthcoming at the Journal of Finance.

“A (Sub)Penny for You Thoughts: Tracking Retail Investor Activity in TAQ” with Brad Barber, Xing Huang, Philippe Jorion, and Terrance Odean, 2024, Journal of Finance 79, 2403 – 2427. (Lead Article)

“How Fast Do Investors Learn? Asset Management Investors and Bayesian Learning,” with Zheng Sun, 2023, Review of Financial Studies 36, 2397–2430.