Associate Professor of Finance
Department of Accounting Law and Finance
Business
Academic and Student Affairs
SVSU Main Campus
Curtiss Hall-W Compx 307
989-964-2651
blotfali@svsu.edu
Personal websiteBabak Joined SVSU in 2021. Before joining SVSU, he was a finance faculty at San Diego State University. He has experience as financial analyst, fund manager, and chief research officer in financial services before following an academic path to become a faculty.
He does research in finance and interdisciplinary research. His research is published by finance journals (such as the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis (JFQA), and Journal of Banking and Finance (JBF)), policy outlets (such as European Central Bank's ESRB working papers), as well as other disciplines (such as European Journal of Operational Research (EJOR)). He is currently an associate editor for Finance Research Letters and Global Finance Journal.
Babak has teaching experience in the following, which has brought him recognition in teaching awards, such as the most influential faculty for MBA students:
Financial derivatives
Intorductory corporate finance (MBA, undergraduate)
International finance
Case-based applied corporate finance (financial management capstone course)
Investments, and student managed equity fund
He also has advised university teams in finance competitions, such as Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) challenge, leading to 2 regional wins. Interested students can directly contact him for more information.
Reseach network profiles: Google Scholar ORCID ResearchGate SSRN
Babak's current research focuses on:
Structural Models of Credit Risk and the Firm
Capital Structure Theory
Derivative Pricing
Real options
These subjects analyze investment (Real options), and borrowing decisions by corporations (Capital Structure Theory), and how the market evaluates the creditworthiness of the firms (Structural Models of Credit Risk and the Firm, Derivative Pricing). He collaborates in inter-disciplinary research. His primary research bridges asset pricing (market evaluation) and corporate finance (corporate decisions).
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His data and codes to replicate his research are available to public at https://www.babakl.com/research.
Selected publications:
Lotfaliei, Babak, 2018 , Zero Leverage and The Value in Waiting to Issue Debt*, Journal of Banking and Finance (JBF), Vol. 97, Pages 335-349, ISSN 0378-4266 (DOI, Replication link)