Morgan Stanley - American Finance Association Award for Excellence in Finance

Award Type: Career Achievement Award

Geographic Scope: International

Overview:
The AFA has established a biannual finance award to be granted based on an individual's career achievements in outstanding thought leadership in the field of financial economics. The Award is granted by the AFA and has been awarded since 2008, continuing for five biannual periods. There is only one recipient of the Award in any biannual period.

Selection Criteria

The AFA is solely responsible for selection of the Award Recipient. The Executive Committee nominates candidates and the AFA Board approves a selection committee, chaired by the outgoing President. The committee evaluates candidates based on:

• Fundamental Impact: Research that opens new areas to inquiry, changes scholars', practitioners', and regulators' thinking about basic problems, or develops new tools that enable academic and practical research progress
• Sustained Impact: Activities with cumulative impact through a career and continuing influence on current research
• Broad Impact: Research contributions widely understood and appreciated across multiple subfields, influencing subsequent research, practice, and pedagogy, and altering the course of empirical and theoretical inquiry

Award Prize

The AFA, with financial support from Morgan Stanley, provides each Award Recipient a gift of $200,000 to be made to an eligible institution in support of research activities in the financial field of the Award Recipient's choosing. An institution is eligible if it is a recognized 501(c)(3) charity (or equivalent for non-US charities). The Award Prize is made by Morgan Stanley in the name of the Award Recipient.

Past Award Winners

• Stewart C. Myers, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2016)
• Stephen A. Ross, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2014)
• Douglas W. Diamond, University of Chicago (2012)
• Michael C. Jensen, Harvard Business School (2010)
• Eugene F. Fama, University of Chicago (2008)