World’s Best B-School Professors: Atif R. Mian

Atif R. Mian

Haas School of Business

Claim to Fame: Financial markets and the economy

Age: 36

Education:

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, SB, Mathematics with Computer Science

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, PhD, Economics

At Haas Since: 2009

Before Haas: University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Fun Fact: Went straight to the top of a ski mountain the first time I put skis on. Don’t ask me how I came down.

If I wasn’t teaching, my dream job would be: Molecular Biologist

Best part of the job: Freedom to investigate and work on any question that interests me

Worst part of the job: Friends and family asking for investment advice

UC Berkeley finance professor and economist Atif Mian is a leading voice on the links between financial markets and the macro economy. Most recently he has used his research to get to the root cause of the recession; understanding the origins of the global financial crisis, the political economy of government intervention in financial markets, and the link between asset prices, household borrowing, and consumption. In one key research article, Mian exposes some of the dreadful realities that continue to keep our economy in bondage by a lingering recession; technicalities such as a lack of judicial processes for banks to adhere to before they are allowed to proceed with foreclosures on delinquent homes. Mian examines the ways in which states without such requirements help to fuel the recession even more.

At UC Berkeley since 2009 (and just 36 years old), Professor Atif holds four titles at Haas: Associate Professor of Finance and Real Estate, Associate Professor of Economics, Director of the Clausen Center for International Business & Policy, and Co-Chair of the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics. He has been honored with several distinguished grants for his academic research including an Initiative on Global Financial Markets Grant and a Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation Entrepreneurship Grant. Currently, he is the co-recipient of a three year National Science Foundation Research Grant (2008-2011) in the amount of $321,000 for his study of the relationship between asset prices, household borrowing, and consumption in the US.

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