Brattle Prize

The Brattle Prize is an annual prize given to authors with the best corporate finance research papers published in the Journal of Finance.

Details

Each year the associate editors of the Journal of Finance award five papers for excellence. The two best finance papers in the subfield of corporate finance and the three best other papers from among all those papers that appeared in the first five issues of that year and in the December issue from the previous year are awarded prizes at the annual American Finance Association in January of the following year. Currently the Brattle prizes are $10,000 for first place and $5,000 for second, but these amounts may change from time to time. Although the prize is awarded by the Brattle Group the administration of the Brattle Prize is the responsibility of the Editor of The Journal of Finance and is carried out in conjunction with the selection of the Smith Breeden Prizes. Associate Editors vote for the best two corporate finance papers (for the Brattle Prizes) and the best three other papers (for the Smith-Breeden Prizes). The papers receiving the most votes in their categories receive the prizes; however, a paper may not win in both categories.[1]

The Journal of Finance is one of the most prestigious and highly cited journals in finance and economics. Each year hundreds of papers are submitted for publication. In 2006, there were 1239 submissions (1037 new manuscripts), 86 articles published, and 8 Brattle Prize nominees from which one first place winning paper and two second place distinguished papers were chosen.[2]

Winners

Table of winning papers[3]

Paper Author(s) Year Issue
"Were the Good Old Days That Good? Changes in Managerial Stock Ownership Since the Great Depression" Clifford G. Holderness, Randall S. Kroszner, and Dennis P.Sheehan 1999 April 1999
"How Big Are the Tax Benefits of Debt?" John R. Graham 2000 October 2000
"Conflicts of Interest and Market Illiquidity in Bankruptcy Auctions: Theory and Tests" Per Strömberg 2001 December 2000
"Market Timing and Capital Structure" Malcolm Baker and Jeffrey Wurgler 2002 February 2002
"Effects of Corporate Diversification on Productivity" Antoinette Schoar 2003 December 2002
"Diversification Discount or Premium? New Evidence from the Business Information Tracking Series" Belen Villalonga 2004 April 2004
"Debt Dynamics" Christopher A. Hennessy and Toni M. Whited 2005 June 2005
"Investment and Financing Constraints: Evidence from the Funding of Corporate Pension Plans" Joshua D. Rauh 2006 February 2006
"Do Tests of Capital Structure Theory Mean What They Say?" Ilya A. Strebulaev 2007 August 2007
"The Risk-Adjusted Cost of Financial Distress" Heitor Almeida and Thomas Philippon 2008 December 2007
"Why Are Buyouts Levered? The Financial Structure of Private Equity Funds" Ulf Axelson, Per Strömberg, and Michael S. Weisbach 2009 August 2009
"Information and Incentives Inside the Firm: Evidence from Loan Officer Rotation" Andrew Hertzberg, José M. Liberti, and Daniel Paravisini 2010 June 2010
"Bankruptcy and Collateral Channel" Efraim Benmelech and Nittai K. Bergman 2011 April 2011
"Information Disclosure, Cognitive Biases, and Payday Borrowing" Marianne Bertrand and Adair Morse 2012 December 2012

Notes

  1. "Prizes and Awards". American Finance Association. Retrieved 2007-09-10.
  2. Harvey, Cam (2007-03-13). "Journal of Finance Editor's Report". American Finance Association. Retrieved 2007-09-10.
  3. "Brattle Group Prize Winners since 1999". American Finance Association. Retrieved 12 January 2013.