Alex Edmans

Professor of Finance

BA (Oxford) PhD (MIT)

Alex Edmans is Professor of Finance at London Business School. Alex graduated from Oxford University and then worked for Morgan Stanley in investment banking (London) and fixed income sales and trading (New York). After a PhD in Finance from MIT Sloan as a Fulbright Scholar, he joined Wharton in 2007 and was tenured in 2013 shortly before moving to LBS.

Alex’s research interests are in corporate finance, responsible business and behavioural finance. He is a Director of the American Finance Association and a Fellow of the Financial Management Association. From 2017-2022 he was Managing Editor of the Review of Finance, the leading academic finance journal in Europe. Alex has spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davos, testified in the UK Parliament, presented to the World Bank Board of Directors as part of the Distinguished Speaker Series, and given the TED talk What to Trust in a Post-Truth World and the TEDx talks The Pie-Growing Mindset and The Social Responsibility of Business with a combined 2.7 million views. He has written for the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Harvard Business Review and World Economic Forum and been interviewed by Bloomberg, BBC, CNBC, CNN, ESPN, Fox, ITV, NPR, Reuters, Sky News, and Sky Sports.

Alex serves as a Non-Executive Director of The Investor Forum, which promotes collaborative engagement between investors and companies, on Royal London Asset Management’s Responsible Investment Advisory Committee, and on the Steering Group of The Purposeful Company, a UK consortium of leaders in responsible business. The UK government appointed him (jointly with PwC) to study the alleged misuse of share buybacks and the link between executive pay and investment. Alex previously served as Mercers’ School Memorial Professor of Business at Gresham College, giving a four-year programme of lectures to the public. His series are on The Principles of Finance (2021/2), The Psychology of Finance (2020/1), Business Skills for the 21st Century (2019/20) and How Business Can Better Serve Society (2018/9).

Alex’s book, Grow the Pie: How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit, was featured in the Financial Times Best Business Books of 2020 and won the Financial Times award for Excellence in Sustainable Finance Education; it has been or is being translated into Arabic, Chinese, French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Turkish. He is a co-author of the 14th edition of Principles of Corporate Finance (with Brealey, Myers, and Allen).

Alex was named Professor of the Year by Poets & Quants in 2021. He has won 24 teaching awards at Wharton and LBS, won the Finance for the Future award for Driving Change in the finance community, and featured in Thinkers50 Radar.

TED talk

Watch Alex's most recent TED talk

Research Awards

Co-led a session on Behavioural Economics at the World Economic Forum in Davos
Testified in House of Commons as part of UK Parliament’s inquiry into corporate governance
Appointed (jointly with PwC) by the UK Government to investigate the effect of share buybacks on executive pay and investment
Presented to Board of Directors at the World Bank Distinguished Speaker Series
Consulted in person by Mark Rutte (Netherlands PM) and Senator Elizabeth Warren on governance
Managing Editor of Review of Finance
Awarded €900,000 grant by European Research Council to study “Long-Term Investing”
Awarded “Rising Star of Corporate Governance” and “Rising Star of Finance”, each for outstanding contributions by a person under 40
Elected Fellow of the National Bureau of Economic Research, Centre for Economic Policy Research, European Corporate Governance Institute
Investor Responsibility Research Centre Award, Moskowitz Prize for Socially Responsible Investing, FIR-PRI Prize for Finance and Sustainability
Appointed Mercers’ School Memorial Professor of Business at Gresham College, to deliver lectures on business to the general public. 2018-9 series was on “How Business Can Better Serve Society”; 2019-20 is on “Business Skills for the 21st Century”
Best Paper Award, Financial Research Association, 2009 and Finalist, Harvard Business Review/McKinsey "Management Innovation of the Year" 2012 for "Dynamic CEO Compensation."
One of the 50 Best Inventions of 2010 by Time Magazine for "The Responsible Homeowner Reward: An Incentive-Based Solution to Strategic Mortgage Default."
1st Place, NYU Glucksman Prize for Best Working Paper in Finance for "Tractability in Incentive Contracting" 2008/9.
Smith-Breeden Prize for Best Paper in the Journal of Finance and Best Paper Award at Caesarea Center 3rd Annual Conference for "Sports Sentiment and Stock Returns" 2007.

Teaching Awards

Excellence in Teaching Award, across all programs (2018)
Best Teacher Award: MFA 2018, MFA 2019
Best Teacher Award: MBA 2016
MBA Class of 2016 Teaching Award; MBA Class of 2019 Teaching Award
Wharton MBA Excellence in Teaching Award (2010, 2012, 2013)
Wharton MBA Core Teaching Award (2007, 2008)
Wharton MBA Core Curriculum Award (“goes above and beyond the call of duty”) (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013)
Wharton MBA Core Curriculum Award (“tough, but we’ll thank this professor in 5 years”) (2008, 2013)
WhartonMBA Teaching Commitment and Curricular Innovation Award (2012)
MIT Graduate Teaching Award, 2006-7
MIT Sloan Outstanding Teaching Assistant of the Year, 2004-5

Corporate finance (corporate governance, executive compensation, mergers and acquisitions)
Behavioural finance
Corporate social responsibility

2023

Applying economics – not gut feel – to ESG

Edmans A

Financial Analysts Journal 2023 Vol 79:4 p 16-29

CEO compensation: evidence from the field

Edmans A; Gosling T; Jenter D

Journal of Financial Economics 2023 In Press

Employee satisfaction, labour market flexibility, and stock returns around the world

Edmans A; Li L; Zhang C

Management Science 2023 Accepted

How great companies deliver both purpose and profit

Edmans A

Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies 2023 Vol 21:3 p 465-469

2022

Interview: When People Listen to Happy Songs, the Market Outperforms

Berinato S

Harvard Business Review 2022 Jan/Feb

Music Sentiment and Stock Returns Around The World

Edmans A; Fernandez-Perez A; Garel A; Indriawan I

Journal of Financial Economics 2022 Vol 145:2 p 234-254

Sustainable finance

Edmans A; Kacperczyk M

Review of Finance 2022 Vol 26:6 p 1309-1313

The End of ESG

Edmans A

Financial Management 2022 Vol 52:1 p 3-17

The Long-Term Consequences of Short-Term Incentives

Edmans A; Fang V W; Huang A H

Journal of Accounting Research 2022 Vol 60:3 p 1007-1046

The purpose of a finance professor

Edmans A

Financial Management 2022 Vol 51:1 p 3-26

2021

How should performance signals affect contracts?

Chaigneau P; Edmans A; Gottlieb D

Review of Financial Studies 2021 In Press

2020

Company purpose and profit need not be in conflict if we 'grow the pie'

Edmans A

Economic Affairs 2020 Vol 40:2 p 287-294

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

Blockholders and corporate governance

Edmans A

Annual Review of Financial Economics 2014 Vol 6 p 23-50

2013

The effect of liquidity on governance

Edmans A; Fang VW; Zur E

Review of Financial Studies 2013 Vol 26:6 p 1443-1482

2012

2011

2009

2007

Sports sentiment and stock returns

Edmans A; García; Norli Ø

Journal of Finance 2007 August Vol 62:4 p 1967-1998

2018

Value of performance signals under limited liability

Chaigneau P; Edmans A; Gottlieb D

European Corporate Governance Institute - Finance Working Paper

2017

The long-term consequences of short-term incentives

Edmans A; Fang V W; Huang A

European Corporate Governance Institute - Finance Working Paper

Value of information for contracting

Chaigneau P; Edmans A; Gottlieb D

European Corporate Governance Institute - Finance Working Paper

2016

2013

Contracting with synergies

Edmans A; Goldstein I; Zhu J

Social Sciences Research Network

2010

The responsible homeowner reward: an incentive-based solution to strategic mortgage default

Edmans A

none

2020

Grow the pie : how great companies deliver both purpose and profit

Edmans A

Cambridge University Press, 2020

Teaching portfolio

Our teaching offering is updated annually. Faculty and programme material are subject to change.

Masters Degrees core courses

A key part of our Masters programmes curriculum.
View courses Show less
Corporate Finance

Corporate Finance: Learn how to value companies, taking into account the incomplete information one often finds in real life. You’ll discuss the challenges analysts face when valuing a company, and how to better cope with them. Emphasis is put on the role of information in financial decisions and agency problems. You’ll also gain a detailed understanding of corporate governance, payout policy,IPOs, and SEOs. Capital Structure: In the wake of the financial crisis, this course re-examines the fundamental linkages between valuation and financial structure. Develop an understanding of debt structure and related risk, and analyse the importance of illiquidity and its relation to benchmark asset pricing frameworks. M&A: Study the market for corporate control and the key concepts of mergers and acquisitions: how to value a target, strategic behaviour, and different landscapes around the world. You’ll also discuss the merits of dispersed ownership.
PROGRAMMES WITH THIS CORE COURSE

Masters in Financial Analysis

Finance I

Learn how to manage your company’s finances and develop a framework to help you make the right financial decisions.
PROGRAMMES WITH THIS CORE COURSE

MBA

Financial Institutions

Financial Institutions
PROGRAMMES WITH THIS CORE COURSE

Masters in Financial Analysis
Show less
Masters Degrees electives

Optional courses providing a deep dive into specialist areas.
View electives Show less
Managing and Investing in Responsible Businesses

MIRB explores whether and how the adoption of Responsible Business practices by companies, in association with the integration of ESG factors by investors, can be an effective way to address these global challenges. MIRB thus aims to fundamentally transform the way students think about the role of business and finance in society by empowering them to understand, develop and implement a model of broader stakeholder value maximisation in conjunction with positive societal impact. Despite highlighting the importance of creating value for society, the course also stresses the criticality of companies generating profits. Indeed, one of the punchlines is that an approach to business based on responsibility can be more profitable than one focused on shareholder value.
PROGRAMMES WITH THIS ELECTIVE

Executive MBA Dubai

Executive MBA London

EMBA-Global

Masters in Analytics and Management

MBA

Masters in Financial Analysis

Masters in Finance Full-time

Masters in Finance Part-time

Masters in Management

LBS Sloan Masters in Leadership and Strategy
Show less

Alex Edmans

TED talk

Research Awards

Teaching Awards

Teaching portfolio

Masters Degrees core courses

PROGRAMMES WITH THIS CORE COURSE

PROGRAMMES WITH THIS CORE COURSE

PROGRAMMES WITH THIS CORE COURSE

Masters Degrees electives

PROGRAMMES WITH THIS ELECTIVE