AFA Presidential Addresses
Every American Finance Association Presidential Address from 1972 to 2024. These are where the profession floats its big ideas, and a great many successful research agendas are buried in them. Sortable by year, author, or title. Column DOI links the version of record.
| Year | President | Title | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1972 | Joseph A. Pechman | Distribution of Federal and State Income Taxes by Income Classes | pdfdoi |
| 1973 | Irwin Friend | Mythodology in Finance | pdfdoi |
| 1974 | Sherman J. Maisel | The Economic and Finance Literature and Decision Making | pdfdoi |
| 1975 | John Lintner | Inflation and Security Returns | pdfdoi |
| 1976 | Myron J. Gordon | A Portfolio Theory of the Social Discount Rate and the Public Debt | pdfdoi |
| 1977 | Merton H. Miller | Debt and Taxes | pdfdoi |
| 1978 | Alexander A. Robichek | Regulation and Modern Finance Theory | pdfdoi |
| 1979 | Burton G. Malkiel | The Capital Formation Problem in the United States | pdfdoi |
| 1980 | Edward J. Kane | Market Incompleteness and Divergences Between Forward and Futures Interest Rates | pdfdoi |
| 1981 | William F. Sharpe | Decentralized Investment Management | pdfdoi |
| 1982 | Franco Modigliani | Debt, Dividend Policy, Taxes, Inflation and Market Valuation | pdfdoi |
| 1983 | Harry M. Markowitz | A Question about CAPMs | pdfdoi |
| 1984 | Stewart C. Myers | The Capital Structure Puzzle | pdfdoi |
| 1985 | James C. Van Horne | Of Financial Innovations and Excesses | pdfdoi |
| 1986 | Fischer Black | Noise | pdfdoi |
| 1987 | Robert C. Merton | A Simple Model of Capital Market Equilibrium with Incomplete Information | pdfdoi |
| 1988 | Richard Roll | R2 | pdfdoi |
| 1989 | Stephen A. Ross | Institutional Markets, Financial Marketing, and Financial Innovation | pdfdoi |
| 1990 | Michael J. Brennan | Latent Assets | pdfdoi |
| 1991 | Myron S. Scholes | Stock and Compensation | pdfdoi |
| 1992 | Robert H. Litzenberger | Plain and Fanciful | pdfdoi |
| 1993 | Michael C. Jensen | The Modern Industrial Revolution, Exit, and the Failure of Internal Control Systems | pdfdoi |
| 1994 | Mark Rubinstein | Implied Binomial Trees | pdfdoi |
| 1995 | Sanford J. Grossman | Dynamic Asset Allocation and the Informational Efficiency of Markets | pdfdoi |
| 1996 | Martin J. Gruber | The Growth in Actively Managed Mutual Funds | pdfdoi |
| 1997 | Eduardo S. Schwartz | Implications for Valuation and Hedging | pdfdoi |
| 1998 | Hayne E. Leland | Agency Costs, Risk Management, and Capital Structure | pdfdoi |
| 1999 | Edwin J. Elton | Expected Return, Realized Return, and Asset Pricing Tests | pdfdoi |
| 2000 | Hans R. Stoll | Friction | pdfdoi |
| 2001 | Franklin Allen | Do Financial Institutions Matter | pdfdoi |
| 2002 | George M. Constantinides | Rational Asset Prices | pdfdoi |
| 2003 | Maureen O'Hara | Liquidity and Price Discovery | pdfdoi |
| 2004 | Douglas W. Diamond | Short-Term Debt When Enforcement Is Costly | pdfdoi |
| 2005 | René M. Stulz | The Limits of Financial Globalization | pdfdoi |
| 2006 | John Y. Campbell | Household Finance | pdfdoi |
| 2007 | Richard C. Green | Issuers, Underwriter Syndicates, and Aftermarket Transparency | pdfdoi |
| 2008 | Kenneth R. French | The Cost of Active Investing | pdfdoi |
| 2009 | Jeremy C. Stein | Sophisticated Investors and Market Efficiency | pdfdoi |
| 2010 | Darrell Duffie | Asset Price Dynamics with Slow-Moving Capital | pdfdoi |
| 2011 | John C. Cochrane | Discount Rates | pdfdoi |
| 2012 | Raghuram G. Rajan | The Corporation in Finance | pdfdoi |
| 2013 | Sheridan Titman | Financial Markets and Investment Externalities | pdfdoi |
| 2014 | Robert Stambaugh | Investment Noise and Trends | pdfdoi |
| 2015 | Luigi Zingalez | Does Finance Benefit Society | pdfdoi |
| 2016 | Patrick Bolton | Debt and Money Financial Constraints and Sovereign Finance | pdfdoi |
| 2017 | Campbell Harvey | The Scientific Outlook in Financial Economics | pdfdoi |
| 2018 | David Scharfstein | Pension Policy and the Financial System | pdfdoi |
| 2019 | Peter DeMarzo | Collateral and Commitment | pdfdoi |
| 2020 | David Hirshleifer | Social Transmission Bias in Economics and Finance | pdfdoi |
| 2021 | Kenneth Singleton | How Much Rationality Is There in Bond‐Market Risk | pdfdoi |
| 2022 | John Graham | Corporate Finance and Reality | pdfdoi |
| 2023 | Laura Starks | Sustainable Finance and ESG Issues Value versus Values | pdfdoi |
| 2024 | Markus Brunnermeier | Macrofinance and Resilience | pdfdoi |