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. Currently, the editor of the Journal of Finance is Kenneth Singleton of Stanford University.
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 and the Western Finance Association Meetings are considered to be the two top general finance conferences in the world.[1]
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
2017 David Scharfstein
2016 Campbell Harvey
2015 Patrick Bolton
2014 Luigi G. Zingales
2013 Robert Stambaugh
2012 Sheridan Titman
2011 Raghuram G. Rajan
2010 John H. Cochrane
2009 J. Darrell Duffie
2008 Jeremy C. Stein
2007 Kenneth R. French
2006 Richard C. Green
2005 John Y. Campbell
2004 René M. Stulz
2003 Douglas W. Diamond
2002 Maureen O'Hara
2000 Franklin Allen
1999 Hans R. Stoll
1998 Edwin J. Elton
1997 Hayne E. Leland
1996 Eduardo S. Schwartz
1995 Martin J. Gruber
1994 Sanford J. Grossman
1993 Mark Rubinstein
1992 Michael C. Jensen
1990 Myron S. Scholes
1989 Michael J. Brennan
1988 Stephen A. Ross
1987 Richard Roll
1986 Robert C. Merton
1985 Fischer Black
1984 James C. Van Horne
1983 Stewart C. Myers
1982 Harry M. Markowitz
1981 Franco Modigliani
1980 William F. Sharpe
1979 Edward J. Kane
1978 Burton G. Malkiel
1976 Merton H. Miller
1975 Myron J. Gordon
1974 John Lintner
1973 Sherman J. Maisel
1972 Irwin Friend
1971 Joseph A. Pechman
1970 Lawrence S. Ritter
1969 Walter E. Hoadley[2]
1968 Harry C. Sauvain[2]
1967 Robert V. Roosa[2]
1966 J. Fred Weston[2]
1965 George Garvy[2]
1964 Roger F. Murray[2]
1963 George T. Conklin, Jr.[2]
1962 Bion B. Howard[2]
1961 Arthur M. Weimer[2]
1959 James J. O'Leary[2]
1956 Miller Upton[2]
1955 Norris O. Johnson[2]
1954 Garfield V. Cox[2]
1952 Edward E. Edwards[2]
1950 Howard R. Bowen[2]
1949 Neil H. Jacoby[2]
1947 Lewis A. Froman[2]
1946 Harry G. Guthman[2]
1945 No President
1944 No President
1943 John D. Clark[2]
1940 Kenneth Field[2]
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:
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.