New Ranking Crowns A Top B-School For Finance Research — And The Winner May Surprise You

What’s the first business school that comes to mind when you think of financial research?

A plethora of B-schools on the U.S. East Coast could claim the mantle of first in finance thought leadership — Wharton, Columbia, NYU Stern, Harvard, and MIT Sloan are probably at or near the top of most lists. A handful of schools outside the U.S. also have a legitimate claim: London Business School, HEC Paris, CEIBS. But a new ranking based on publications in the world’s most influential journals crowns a somewhat unexpected winner: the University of California-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

In its new ranking of nearly 150 schools published in May, the Center for Finance and Accounting Research at the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis named Berkeley Haas the No. 1 school for financial research thanks to its professors’ prodigious output in a lineup of prestigious journals.

BERKELEY HAAS PROFS PUBLISH AN AVERAGE OF 0.71 FINANCE ARTICLES PER YEAR

The CFAR ranking is based on publication in six finance journals, 10 economics journals, three accounting journals, and two general business journals from 2000 to 2023. The ranking considers articles published only by finance professors, according to CFAR, “or non-finance professors who have published at least three papers in the top three finance journals”: the Journal Of Finance, the Journal Of Financial Economics, and the Review Of Financial Studies.

Using this measure, Berkeley Haas finance faculty came out on top for per-capita research output, publishing an average 0.71 papers in top journals each year. Second on the list was Chicago Booth School of Business at 0.69 articles, followed by Harvard Business School (0.598), MIT Sloan School of Management (0.593), and UCLA Anderson School of Management (0.58). See the entire ranking on pages 2 and 3.

In a separate list based on total output, Chicago Booth is first with 616 total articles; Wharton was second with 581, NYU Stern third (572), Harvard fourth (568), and MIT Sloan fifth (565). Berkeley Haas was No. 8 on that list with 368 articles.

IN OTHER RESEARCH RANKINGS, HAAS IS 14TH, 33RD & 37TH

For years, business schools’ research has been measured in two rankings: The Financial Times ranks schools’ faculty output over a 30-month span as part of its annual Global MBA ranking, while the University of Texas-Dallas Jindal School of Management publishes a twin ranking of schools in North America and global schools, looking at publications over the previous five years. According to the FT, Berkeley Haas ranked 14th for research this year; in UT-Dallas’ North American list, Haas was 33rd in 2023, with 135 articles published from 2018 to 2023. On the Jindal School’s global list, Haas landed 37th.

But these rankings are generalized; Berkeley Haas’ No. 1 rank on the new CFAR/Washington Olin list comes in the more specialized area of finance research. And it comes as no surprise to Haas Dean Ann Harrison.

“We know that our finance faculty is incredibly strong, and this is quantifiable proof that they are true rock stars,” Harrison said in a story on the Haas website. “We are very proud of the strength and influence of our finance researchers.”

Added Haas Associate Professor David Sraer, chair of the Finance Group: “Our group provides cutting-edge research in finance, and this ranking is a testament to it. Given our brilliant junior faculty, I am confident this trend will continue in the future!”

See the complete CFAR ranking of business schools by per capita finance research on the next pages.

AND DON’T MISS THE TOP 100 BUSINESS SCHOOLS, RANKED BY RESEARCH