Kevin Aretz

About Me

I am a Professor of Finance at Alliance Manchester Business School. I hold a PhD degree from Lancaster University. Prior to joining Manchester, I worked at Lancaster University and as part-time academic advisor for Old Mutual Asset Management.

My research interests are in the areas of theoretical and empirical cross-sectional asset pricing, empirical corporate finance, and econometrics. 

In my recent work, I use real options asset pricing models to explain stock return anomalies. Also, I employ shock-based inference methods to study corporate finance phenomena, such as access to debt. I have also started studying the cross-section of returns of non-equity asset classes, such as options or bonds.

I have presented my research at all major global finance conferences, including the European Finance Association (EFA) meetings, the Financial Intermediation Research Society (FIRS) meetings, and the Western Finance Association (WFA) meetings.

I have published in journals such as the Journal of Finance, Management Science, the Journal of Financial & Quantitative Analysis, the Review of Finance, the Journal of Corporate Finance, the Journal of Banking and Finance, and the International Journal of Forecasting.  

You can download my curriculum vitae from HERE.

You can access my research on SSRN from HERE.

Representative Publications

1. Aretz, K., and A. Kagkadis, 2023, Construction, Real Uncertainty, and Stock-Level Investment Anomalies, conditionally accepted by the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis.

2. Aretz, K., and A. Gazi, 2023, The Early Exercise Risk Premium, unconditionally accepted by Management Science.

3. Aretz, K., M. Lin, and S. Poon, 2023, Moneyness, Underlying Asset Volatility, and the Cross-Section of Option Returns, Review of Finance 27, 289-323.  

4. Aretz, K., M. Campello, and M.-T. Marchica, 2020, Access to Collateral and the Democratization of Credit: France’s Reform of the Napoleonic Security Code, Journal of Finance 75, 45-90.

5. Aretz, K., S. Banerjee, and O. Pryshchepa, 2019, In the Path of the Storm: Does Financial Distress Cause Industrial Firms to Risk-Shift?, Review of Finance 23, 1115-1154.

6. Aretz, K., and P. Pope, 2018, Real Options Models of the Firm, Capacity Overhang, and the Cross-Section of Stock Returns, Journal of Finance 73, 1363-1415.

7. Aretz, K., C. Florackis, and A. Kostakis, 2018, Do Stock Returns Really Decrease With Default Risk? New International Evidence, Management Science 63, 3821-3842.