TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – An article written for the Journal of Financial Research by two faculty members at The University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration has been awarded the journal’s top prize as “Best Article” for 2000.
Each year the editorial board of the Journal selects the top article published in the previous volume. Dr. Thomas W. Downs, associate professor of finance, and Dr. Robert W. Ingram, Ross-Culverhouse Endowed Chair and Accountancy, wrote the article, “Beta, Size, Risk and Return.” It was published in the fall 2000 issue.
“This is exciting news, not only for Rob and Tom but for our entire business school and University,” said Dr. J. Barry Mason, dean of the Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration. “Our faculty has developed an excellent reputation for financial research, thanks to the efforts of people like Tom and Rob. To receive this recognition enhances that reputation even more and brings their excellence in research to the attention of their peers around the world.”
“Obviously, I am very pleased to have the article recognized in this fashion,” Downs said. “Rob and I are fortunate to have the resources of the College and the support of the administration which allows us to do this kind of research.” Downs, who also is the James I. Harrison Family Endowed Teaching Excellence Faculty Fellow, said the study benefited from financial support by The University of Alabama Faculty Sabbatical Program as well as the Ernest T. Williams Travel Fund.
Ingram, who also is a past president of the University Faculty Senate, said, “It is particularly gratifying to have our work recognized by a panel of such distinguished associate editors and peers.”
The Journal of Financial Research is a quarterly academic journal devoted to publication of original scholarly research in investment and portfolio management, capital markets and institutions, and corporate finance, corporate governance, and capital investment. The JFR, as it is popularly known, has been in continuous publication since 1978 and is sponsored by the Southern Finance Association and the Southwestern Finance Association.
Subscribers include most college and university libraries in the United States as well as several abroad, various financial institutions throughout the world, and individual members of the Southern Finance Association and the Southwestern Finance Association.
In addition to the Journal of Financial Research award, a study published in the Spring 2001 issue of The Journal of Financial Education listed UA’s business school eighth among institutions granting degrees to students who later became business school chairholders. The authors of the study wrote that, “One can probably conclude from these facts that the schools that have produced a large number of chairholders are among the best business schools in the United States.”
That report follows a 1999 study of the research productivity of finance doctoral students, as measured by publication records, which placed the Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration third among 78 leading business schools.
That study, conducted by researchers from Cleveland State and Concordia (Montreal) Universities, placed only The University of Texas at Austin and The University of Chicago, first and second, respectively, ahead of UA.
The Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration was founded in 1919. It has been consistently ranked in the top 3 percent of the nation’s business schools. The Techno-MBA program is ranked fourth by ComputerWorld, the MBA program is ranked 21st among regional universities for return on investment by Forbes Magazine, and the undergraduate program is ranked 50th by U.S. News and World Report. The graduate accounting program is ranked 17th in the latest rankings by Public Accounting Report, the most- often cited ranking of undergraduate and graduate accounting programs.
Contact
Bill Gerdes, UA Business Writer, (205) 348-8318