Michael Faulkender, PhD

Michael Faulkender is a Professor of Finance at the Robert H Smith School of Business. He served as the Chief Economist and Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the US Department of Treasury from 2019 to 2021.  In that role, he advised the Secretary on domestic and international issues that impacted the economy.  During the COVID-19 pandemic, he assisted in negotiating the CARES Act and was the senior Treasury official who led the implementation of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). His research lies at the intersection of financial economics and public policy.  Examples include the job impacts of the PPP, corporate capital structure, risk management, corporate liquidity, and executive compensation. His work has been published in the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, and Review of Financial Studies and has been cited in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and The New York Times. He was awarded the Barclay’s Global Investors / Michael Brennan Best Paper Award in the Review of Financial Studies in 2013, was runner up for that prize in 2006, and won the Jensen Prize for Corporate Finance – Second Prize in the Journal of Financial Economics in 2013. He previously served on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Finance as an Associate Editor.