Stephen E. Christophe

Stephen E. Christophe is Professor of Finance at the Costello College of Business at George Mason University. His research focuses on security valuation, portfolio diversification, and the investment activities of short sellers. He has published articles in the Journal of Business, Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Investing, Journal of Portfolio Management, and Financial Analysts Journal, and several of his articles have been recognized with “Best Paper” awards.

At Mason, Professor Christophe is a highly rated teacher who leads courses in Managerial Finance, Advanced Financial Management and International Finance. His work with students in the GMU Executive MBA program was recognized with a “Teacher of the Year” award.

Professor Christophe has also served as a testifying expert witness in a case involving the characteristics of stocks, bonds and mutual funds. In addition, he has served as an expert consultant in more than one dozen cases pending before a Federal Court on issues related to investment suitability, fixed income securities, and trust fund management.

Prior to joining the faculty at the Costello College of Business, Professor Christophe was a visiting assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and at Michigan State University. In addition, before obtaining his PhD, he worked as a corporate development analyst at FPL Group, financial economist at the National Soft Drink Association, and public utility consultant.

Research Interests

• Corporate Finance
• Investments

Education

• PhD - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• MBA - College of William and Mary
• BA - Colby College

Research and Awards

• Presented the paper titled, “Do Sustainability Efforts Improve the Long-Term Survival and Performance of IPOs?” at the Sustainability, Ethics, and Entrepreneurship (SEE) Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 2017 (with colleague Hun Lee.)
• Published an article titled, “Time to Stay Home? Global Diversification During the Past 25 Years” in The Journal of Wealth Management in 2017.
• Presented the paper titled, “Do Sustainability Efforts Improve the Long-Term Survival and Performance of IPOs?” at the Sustainability, Ethics, and Entrepreneurship Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico in March 2017 with colleague Hun Lee, Management.
• Published an article titled, “Nathan Associates Rule 10b-5 Assessment Report - July 2015” (coauthored with Nessim Mezrahi) by Nathan Associates, Inc. in 2015.
• Published the article titled "Stock Price Impact Since Halliburton -- What the Data Says" in 2015 by the publisher Law360.
• Presented the paper titled, “Short Selling and Cross-Section of Corporate Bond Returns” at the Financial Management Association European Conference in Venice, Italy in June in 2015 (with coauthors Jim Hsieh, Michael Ferri, and Tao-Hsien King).
• Presented the paper titled, “Short Selling and Corporate Bond Returns” at the Financial Management Association European Conference in Venice, Italy in 2015.
• Presented the paper titled, “Why Investors Want to Know the Size of Your Shorts” at the European Finance Association annual meeting in Cambridge, England in 2013 (with coauthors Jim Hsieh and Mike Ferri).
• Presented the paper titled, “Why Investors Want to Know the Size of Your Shorts” at the Financial Management Association European Conference in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg in 2013 (with coauthors Jim Hsieh and Mike Ferri).
• Awarded the Outstanding Paper Award from NTU International Finance Conference in 2012 for the paper titled “Short Selling and Corporate Bond Returns”  (coauthored with Michael G. Ferri, Jim Hsieh and Hsien Dolly King).
• Presented the paper titled “Short Selling and Corporate Bond Returns” at the NTU International Conference on Finance in Taipei, Taiwan in 2012 and at the Financial Management Association Asian Conference in Shanghai, China in  2013 (with coauthors Michael Ferri, Dolly King, and Jim Hsieh).
• Presented the paper “Why Investors Want to Know the Size of Your Shorts” at the European Financial Management Association (EFMA) annual meeting in Reading, United Kingdom and at the Financial Management Association European Conference in Luxembourg, Luxembourg in 2013.
• Had the article “Short Selling and the Weekend Effect in Nasdaq Stock Returns” (coauthored with Michael Ferri) selected as Outstanding Publication from the Financial Review.
• Published an article titled, “Informed Trading Before Analyst Downgrades: Evidence from Short Sellers” (with Michael Ferri and Jim Hsieh) in the Journal Of Financial Economics.
• Published an article titled, “Informed Trading Before Analyst Downgrades: Evidence from Short Sellers” in the Journal of Financial Economics.