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About Kerry
Kerry Back is the J. Howard Creekmore Professor of Finance in the Jones Graduate School of Business and Professor of Economics in the School of Social Sciences at Rice University, where he has served since 2009 in finance and 2014 in economics. He currently holds the role of Finance Area Coordinator since 2023. Back earned his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Kentucky in 1983 and his B.A. in Economics from Western Kentucky University in 1978. His academic career includes the Jerry and Kay Cox Chair in Business and Thomas W. Leland Memorial Chair in Finance at Texas A&M University from 2004 to 2009; various positions at Washington University in St. Louis from 1989 to 2004, including Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Vernon W. and Marion K. Piper Professor of Financial Economics; Associate Professor of Finance at Indiana University from 1987 to 1990; Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania in 1988-1989; and Assistant Professor of Economics at Northwestern University from 1982 to 1987.
Back's research specializations encompass asset pricing theory and empirics, market microstructure, auction theory, derivative securities, disclosure policies, optimal contracting, security market design, and information asymmetry in option markets. He teaches asset pricing theory to PhD students in the Jones School and Department of Economics, data-driven finance and quantitative finance to Masters of Data Science students in Computer Science, and generative AI for finance and quantitative investment strategies to MBA students. Among his major awards are the Financial Management Association Innovation in Teaching Award in 2025 and 2023 (joint with Kevin Crotty), Western Finance Association Keynote Speaker in 2024, Fellow of the Finance Theory Group since 2017, and Member of the Foundation for the Advancement of Research in Financial Economics since 2018. He is the author of textbooks including Pricing and Hedging Derivative Securities (2025), Asset Pricing and Portfolio Choice Theory (Oxford University Press, 2016, 2nd ed.), and A Course in Derivative Securities (Springer, 2005). Key publications include "Activism, Strategic Trading, and Liquidity" in Econometrica (2018, with Collin-Dufresne, Fos, Li, Ljungqvist), "Strategic Liquidity Provision in Limit Order Markets" in Econometrica (2013, with Baruch), "The Informational Role of Stock and Bond Volume" in Review of Financial Studies (2015, with Crotty), and "Information in Securities Markets: Kyle Meets Glosten and Milgrom" in Econometrica (2004, with Baruch). Back has influenced the field through editorial roles as Editor of the Review of Financial Studies (1994-1997), Co-Editor of Finance and Stochastics (2001-2011), and Associate Editor of the Journal of Finance (multiple terms, including 2022–).