Faculty Research Day

Chris Clifford is an Associate Professor of Finance. Prior to pursuing academia, Professor Chris Clifford worked as an analyst in the hedge fund industry. His research interests focuses on non-banking intermediaries such as financial advisors, mutual funds, and hedge funds. His work has been mentioned in the Financial Times, The Economist, and the Wall Street Journal. His representative papers have been published at the Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Economics, and the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis. Professor Clifford earned a B.B.A. in Finance from Texas A&M University, an M.B.A. with a concentration in Finance from Southern Methodist University, and a Ph.D. in Finance from Arizona State University.

Frank Scott is a Gatton Endowed Professor of Economics at the University of Kentucky. Formerly he has been an Assistant Professor at Auburn University and Assistant and Associate Professor at the University of Kentucky. He graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1973, majoring in economics. He received the Ph.D. in economics from the University of Virginia in 1979. His teaching interests include microeconomic theory, industrial organization, managerial economics, and law and economics. His research interests include industrial organization, regulation of business, public policy, and applied microeconomics in general. He has published in a variety of academic journals on topics such as franchising, antitrust, tax policy and labor compensation, utility regulation and ratemaking, the economics of lotteries, and the economics of professional sports industries. He has received funding for his research from a variety of federal and state sources. He has served as a consultant to several state and federal government agencies and as a consultant and expert witness for the U.S. Department of Justice and numerous private-sector businesses.

James Fackler is a Professor of Economics in the Gatton College of Business and Economics at the University of Kentucky. His research specialty is macroeconomics and monetary economics. Dr. Fackler is an affiliate of the Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise. He received his PhD from Indiana University.

Felipe Benguria is an Assistant Professor of Economics in the Gatton College of Business and Economics at the University of Kentucky. He holds a PhD and MA in economics from the University of Virginia, an MA in economics from Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, and a BS in engineering from Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile. He has published his research in leading economic journals such as American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, The Journal of Economic History, American Economic Review: Insights, and Journal of International Economics.

Mark Liu is an associate professor of finance with tenure and the founding director of the Master of Science in Finance program at the University of Kentucky. His research interest is in machine learning and corporate finance (IPOs, Mergers & Acquisitions, Corporate Governance, Financial Analysts, Dividend Policy, and Corporate Restructuring). He obtained his Ph.D. in finance from Boston College. Dr. Liu has published his research in top finance journals such as Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Corporate Finance, and Review of Corporate Finance Studies.

SuZanne Troske is a Research Associate for the Community and Economic Development Initiative of Kentucky (CEDIK). CEDIK is an integrated engagement/research center housed within the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment at the University of Kentucky. Her current areas of study at CEDIK are rural health and rural economic development. Su holds a Master’s degree in economics from Florida State University.

Sookti Chaudhary is a PhD candidate in the Department of Economics. She has an MS in Economics from the University of Kentucky, an MBA from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, and a B.Tech. in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, India.

Igor Cunha is an Assistant Professor of Finance. He has a PhD in Finance and a MS in Economics from the University of Illinois. Prior to joining the Gatton College of Business, he was an Assistant Professor at Nova School of Business and Economics, in Lisbon Portugal.
His research focuses on corporate finance, credit ratings and liquidity management. He has published his research in leading finance journals such as: Journal of Finance, Annual Review of Financial Economics, and Finance Research Letters.