PhD, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
BS, Babson College
Research Interest
Hedge Funds
Mutual Funds
Retail Trading
Investments
Regulation and Money Management
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.
Publications
“The ‘Actual Retail Price’ of Equity Trades” with Brad Barber, Xing Huang, Philippe Jorion, and Terrance Odean, Forthcoming at the Journal of Finance. (link)
“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) (link)
“How Fast Do Investors Learn? Asset Management Investors and Bayesian Learning,” with Zheng Sun, 2023, Review of Financial Studies 36, 2397–2430. (link)
“Attention Induced Trading and Returns: Evidence from Robinhood Users,” with Brad Barber, Xing Huang, Terry Odean, 2022, Journal of Finance 77, 3141 – 3190. (link)
“The Fix is In: Properly Backing out Backfill Bias,” with Philippe Jorion, Review of Financial Studies 32, 5048 – 5099. (link)
“Revisiting Mutual Fund Portfolio Disclosure,” with Mark E. Potter, 2016, Review of Financial Studies 29, 3519 – 3544. (link)
“The Strategic Listing Decisions of Hedge Funds,” with Philippe Jorion, 2014, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis 49, 773 – 796. (link)
“The Delisting Bias in Hedge Fund Databases,” with Philippe Jorion, 2014, Journal of Alternative Investments 16, 37 – 47. (link)
“Are Hedge Fund Managers Systematically Misreporting? Or Not?” with Philippe Jorion, 2014, Journal of Financial Economics 111, 311 – 327. (link)
“Decision Making and Risk Aversion in the Cash Cab,” with Richard Bliss and Mark Potter, 2012, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 84, 163 – 173. (link)
“Mutual Fund Tournaments: The Sorting Bias and New Evidence,” 2012, Review of Financial Studies 25, 913 – 936. (link)
“Trust and Delegation,” with Stephen J. Brown, William Goetzmann and Bing Liang, 2012, Journal of Financial Economics 103, 221 – 234. (link) — Lead Article
“Tax Equalization in Mutual Funds,” with Steve Gill, 2011, Journal of the American Tax Association 33, 89 – 110. (link)
“Estimating Operational Risk for Hedge Funds: The ω-score,” with Stephen J. Brown, William Goetzmann and Bing Liang, 2009, Financial Analyst Journal 65, 43—53. (link) — Graham and Dodd Award for Best Paper
“Mandatory Disclosure and Operational Risk: Evidence from Hedge Fund Registration,” with Stephen J. Brown, William Goetzmann and Bing Liang, 2008, Journal of Finance 63, 2785—2815. (link)
“Performance Characteristics of Individual vs. Team Managed Mutual Funds,” with Richard Bliss and Mark Potter, 2008, Journal of Portfolio Management 34, 110—119. (link)
“The Progeny of CAPM,” with Sanjay Nawalkha, 2004, Journal of Investment Management, 2, 1522—1540.
Publications in Other Fields
“L(2,1)-labelings of the Cartesian products of two cycles,” with Denise Troxell, 2006, Discrete Applied Mathematics, 154, 1522—1540.
Working Papers
“Who Is Minding the Store? Order Routing and Competition in Retail Trade Execution” with Xing Huang, Philippe Jorion, and Mina Lee. (link)
“The Ins and Outs of U.S. Hedge Fund Investor Flows” with Philippe Jorion. (link)
“Do Market Participants Care about Portfolio Disclosure? Evidence from Hedge Funds’ 13F Filings,” with Stephen Brown. (link)
“Revisiting the Effect of Net Unrealized Gains and Losses on Mutual Fund Investors,” with Steve Gill
“Share Restrictions and Investor Flows in the Hedge Fund Industry,” with Mila Getmansky, Bing Liang, and Russ Wermers. (link)
“Is Pay for Performance Effective? Evidence from the Hedge Fund Industry,” with Bing Liang. (link)
Red Rock Finance Conference, Best Paper Award “The ‘Actual Retail Price’ of Equity Trades”, 2023
Excellence in Teaching, Fully-Employed MBA, 2012-2024
Utah Winter Finance Conference, Best Paper Award, “The ‘Actual Retail Price’ of Equity Trades”, 2023
Financial Research Association (FRA), Best Paper Award, “The ‘Actual Retail Price’ of Equity Trades”, 2022
Excellence in Teaching, Executive MBA, 2017
UCI Paul Merage School of Business Faculty Service Award, 2016
Excellence in Teaching, Full-time MBA, 2011-2013
Graham and Dodd Award for Best Paper, Financial Analyst Journal, 2009
BSI GAMMA Foundation Grant (with Stephen J. Brown, William Goetzmann and Bing Liang), 2007
Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award, Isenberg School of Management, 2007
Graduate School Fellowship Award, University of Massachusetts, 2007–2008
