Joseph Farizo

Robins School of Business · 102 UR Drive · Office 329 · University of Richmond, VA 23173 · (804) 289-8565 · jfarizo@richmond.edu

I am an Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of Richmond's Robins School of Business, teaching Principles of Financial Management (FIN 360) and Investments (FIN 366). My research focuses on corporate governance, financial intermediation, and investments. During my time at UR and Robins, I've won the 2023 Teaching Award, 2023 Scholarly Research Award, Class of 2022 Faculty of the Year Award, and Outstanding Research Publication Award (2022 and 2023). Previously, I have led courses and seminars in introductory corporate finance, Microsoft Excel, and Python programming.

I am from Lafitte, Louisiana (south of New Orleans) and earned my Bachelor's and Master's degrees in finance from Louisiana State University. In my spare time, I enjoy traveling and motorcycling.


Education

University of Kentucky

PhD of Business Administration- Finance & Quantitative Methods
2015 - 2020

Louisiana State University

MS- Finance
2012-2013

Louisiana State University

BS- Finance
2008 - 2011

Experience

Postlethwaite & Netterville, APAC
8550 United Plaza Blvd., Suite 1001
Baton Rouge, LA 70809

Business valuation consulting.
Summer 2014

TWFG Insurance Services
148 Croydon Avenue
Baton Rouge, LA 70820

Branch owner and insurance agent.
2010-2014

CV

Click here to download a copy of my CV.

Research & Data

(Black)Rock the Vote: Index Funds and Opposition to Management

Journal of Corporate Finance

I show index funds are more likely to oppose management on contentious management sponsored proposals at firms held only by their family’s index funds than on proposals at firms co-held by their family’s active funds. Additionally, shareholder proposals garner a greater level of support by index funds when the firm’s shares are not simultaneously held by a fund’s same-family active funds. Consistent with “locked-in” motives to monitor, these results imply index funds participate as more engaged voters when same-family active funds avoid holding positions in a firm.

Presented at SEC PhD Consortium (2018), Eastern Finance Association (2019), University of Kentucky (2019), FMA PhD Student Consortium (2019), FMA Annual Meeting (2019), University of South Carolina (2019), The College of New Jersey (2019), Salisbury University (2019), Towson University (2019), University of Richmond (2019), The Citadel (2019).

Misconduct and Fraud by Investment Managers

Chapter in Corruption and Fraud in Financial Markets: Malpractice, Misconduct, and Manipulation. With Steve Dimmock and Will Gerken.

We document the prevalence and variety of frauds committed by investment managers. We show that prior legal and regulatory violations, conflicts-of-interest, and monitoring disclosures available via the Security and Exchange Commission’s Form ADV are useful for predicting fraud. Additional tests show that fraud by rogue employees is more predictable than firm-wide fraud, but both types of fraud are significantly predictable. We revisit the fraud prediction model of Dimmock and Gerken (2012) and test its performance out-of-sample (using fraud cases discovered since that article’s publication). We find the model has significant predictive power for the out-of-sample cases. To encourage additional research in this area, we have made the data used in this chapter publicly available at https://doi.org/10.13023/nsjd-rk62.

Following Dimmock and Gerken (2012) and Dimmock, Gerken, and Marietta-Westberg (2015), we use Form ADV data to construct an annual panel of registered investment advisors. Variable definitions are available at the data download site. If you use this dataset, please cite Dimmock, Farizo, and Gerken (2018) and Dimmock and Gerken (2012).

The Low-Risk Effect in Equities: Evidence from Industry Data in an Earlier Time

Financial Analysts Journal. With C. Mitchell Conover and Andrew Szakmary.

Recently, there has been discussion of a "replication crisis" in Finance, where many empirical results in financial research are said not to be replicable. Previous research finds that low-risk stocks have higher returns than higher-risk stocks on a risk-adjusted basis. We reexamine the low-risk effect using a unique dataset for U.S. industries from 1871 to 1925. We confirm the presence of the effect for portfolios of U.S. industries, indicating that the low-risk effect is not due to data mining in previous studies. Comparing the results to that for more recent data, we find that the overall effect is at least as strong in the earlier data. Given that some market frictions were fewer in the earlier period, the results suggest that implicit trading costs, illiquidity, and/or behavioral biases may play an important role in the low-risk effect.

Where is the Intersection of Madison Avenue and Wall Street? Advertisement, Local Access to Investment Advice, and Stock Market Participation

With Will Gerken and Ge Wu.

We examine the effects of advertisement by investment advisory firms on household stock market participation. Exploiting variation in exposure to financial advertising for households along designated market area (DMA) borders, we find evidence that increased advertising by investment advisory firms leads to higher stock market participation. Importantly, the effects are concentrated in counties where the advertising firm has a physical presence. Consistent with fixed cost frictions to participation, these effects are predominantly among higher income households. We also find larger effects in counties with higher income and racial diversity —areas that are likely to have lower trust. Our results highlight the complementary nature of persuasive advertising and local access to finance for building trust in the market for investment advice.

Presentations: University of Kentucky, FINRA Investor Education Foundation, FINRA's Office of the Chief Economist, and NORC at the University of Chicago Joint Conference on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Issues in Capital Markets, 2021 CFP Academic Research Colloquium for Financial Planning and Related Disciplines poster session, 2022 Boulder Summer Conference on Consumer Financial Decision Making poster session, 2022 FMA Annual Meeting, University of Richmond, 2022 SFA Annual Meeting.

Endowment Asset Allocations: Insights and Strategies

Journal of Asset Management. With Tom Arnold, John Earl, and David North.

Using monthly data from 1997 to 2023, we construct mean-variance optimized portfolios of common university endowment asset classes, including domestic equity, international equity, global bonds, hedge funds, private equity, real estate, and natural resources. We find substantial variation in optimal allocations to these asset classes across subperiods. Some asset classes are substantially more persistent in receiving allocations than others, while some asset classes rarely receive sizable allocations at all. Our results highlight the relevance of asset allocation in portfolio performance and may inform future decisions by institutional investors and endowment portfolio managers.



The Diversification Benefits of Foreign Real Estate: Evidence from 40 Years of Data

Journal of Risk and Financial Management. With C. Mitchell Conover, H. Swint Friday, and David North.

We investigate the potential of global real estate to improve the long-term performance of a US equity portfolio, utilizing a recent dataset of 40 years’ worth of US stocks, US real estate, 13 foreign stock markets, and 13 foreign real estate markets across diverse regions. Despite a modest performance in terms of risk and return, foreign real estate has consistently lower correlations with US stocks compared to foreign equities. Rolling correlation analysis indicates that foreign real estate markets remain relatively segmented compared to foreign equity, despite increasing financial market correlations over time. Efficient frontier analysis demonstrates that portfolios including foreign real estate consistently outperform those limited to US stocks and US real estate or those including foreign stocks, indicating the importance of foreign real estate in optimizing portfolio performance. Subperiod analysis reveals that foreign real estate retains its diversification benefits even in the latter, more integrated period. Our results are robust when using Conditional Value-at-Risk as a measure of risk. Overall, our findings highlight the persistent diversification benefits and superior risk-adjusted returns from incorporating foreign real estate into US equity portfolios.

Click here to visit my SSRN page.



Teaching

FIN 360: Principles of Financial Management

Spring 2023 - present

Course Materials

FIN 366:
Investments

Fall 2020 - present

Course Materials

Python
for Finance

(Archived) UKY Spring 2019 Seminar

Presentation

B&E 105: Excel

(Archived) UKY 2018-2020

Excel Study Guides

FIN 300: Intro to Corporate

(Archived) UKY 2018

Course Materials

Resources

Market Hours: 9:30am - 4pm ET
The Wall Street JournalThe New York TimesThe EconomistSeeking Alpha
Finance (and other) Career Information: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook

The Wall Street Journal

Markets

Research



Motorcycling

My bike: 2020 Harley-Davidson Softail Slim (6500 miles and counting). Previous bikes: 2017 Scout (6000 miles) and 2015 CB300F (2800 miles). My favorite motorcycle routes (each is a link to an interactive Google Map): Kentucky: Highway 213 · Small Town Loop · Keeneland · UKY to EKU · Red River Gorge · The Mills · Dealers' Row · Raven Run and Jacks · Boones and Four Mile Road · Shaker Village · White Oak · Buckeye Ridge · 89 South · Stamping Ground · Daniel Boone National Forest · To Frankfort · Bighill Overlook · Ohio: Ohio River · Virginia: Woods Acres · Williamsburg · Shenandoah Pass · Red Hill & UVA · Rappahannock River · Blue Ridge Parkway · Crabtree Falls · Huguenot and Three Bridge · Amelia to Powhatan · Harpers Ferry · Colorado: Rockies


Travel

Click here for an interactive Google map.