Meet our Professors: Ines Chaieb
At GFRI, our greatest strength is our people. We put a lot of emphasis on high-quality research and teaching and take great pride in our world-class and award-wining faculty, who are the top researchers and leading experts in their fields. They offer a stimulating and caring environment for learning, and a firm commitment to excellence.
Here, we would like to introduce Professor Ines Chaieb, a Scientific committee member of the GEMFIN and of the GEMWeM and previously the Director of the GEMWeM from 2015-2022.
About Prof. Ines Chaieb
Ines Chaieb is a Professor of Finance at the University of Geneva and has been affiliated with the Swiss Finance Institute since September 2010. Her research has been published in top academic journals such as the Journal of Financial Economics and the Review of Financial Studies. Her work has been awarded research grants from the Swiss Finance Institute (SFI), Inquire Europe, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).
Ines is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Financial Econometrics and the Journal of Multinational Financial Management. She is a referee for many top academic journals such as RFS, JFE, JFQA, Review of Finance, Management Science, JIE, and JBF.
Ines teaches in graduate programs (MSc, Doctoral Advanced Studies). She also taught in the online Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) on Investment Management offered by the Geneva Finance Research Institute (GFRI) in collaboration with UBS. The MOOC reached over 1 million students around the world.
Ines is also a CAIA Academic Partners Steering Committee member. She is also a Scientific Council member of the Paris School of Business and of IPAG Business School.
Research Interests
· International Asset pricing
· Global investment
· Financial Intermediaries
· Responsible Investing
Education
Ph.D. in Finance from McGill University
Teaching
· Financial Economics, GEMWeM and GEMFIN
· Global Asset Management, GEMWeM and GEMFIN
· Global Asset Allocation and Management, Executive PhD
Life as a Finance Professor
What do you like most about your job?
As Einstein said “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know”. That is what I love about our profession, continuous learning. I don’t think I will ever get bored. You also learn to become patient and resilient after a few journal rejections.
What are you currently researching?
I try to better understand the following questions: How does financial intermediation affect asset pricing in a global context? Which firm characteristics help predict global institutional investment? Do global ESG-aware institutional investors invest more in high ESG firms independent of their location or do their preferences reveal an ESG home bias? I am also exploring how inflation risk and currency risk are priced in international equity markets.
What is your most significant discovery?
My work focuses on the relationship between risk and expected return in a global context and its implications for global asset management. Specifically understanding the global market structure and the pricing implications of the interaction effect of different frictions. I have examined these issues through equilibrium asset pricing models as well as International APT models. The key findings are that local risk factors matter in most countries including the major markets such as US, UK, and Japan but the local risk premium varies over time and is much larger in emerging markets. The mispricing is significant in all markets. My work also shows the significant role of implicit barriers (such as weak institutions, lack of transparency, and poor governance) in segmenting markets.
What is your most significant professional achievement?
Female representation in the academic finance profession remains low (see Sherman and Tookes, Journal of Finance 2022). Ethnic representation is also low. I believe I am the only Tunisian Finance Professor with five publications in the top three Financial journals (Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, and Review of Financial Studies). So, I am pleased to contribute to reducing the gender and ethnic imbalances in our profession.
If I weren’t a professor of finance, I’d be
conducting research on other fields.
Professor I most admire and why:
Fischer Black for his great contribution to the field (including international finance). Also, the 1997 Nobel Laureate Robert Merton. The work of the 2013 Nobel laureate, Eugene F. Fama, is also impressive.
Who was your biggest inspiration?
My biggest inspiration was my Ph.D. advisor, Professor Vihang Errunza, widely recognized as “the father of emerging markets”. I admire his remarkable balance between intuitive and analytical thinking.
What do you enjoy most about teaching finance students?
Teaching subjects close to my research interests which I do through the Global Asset Management course. Show students the link between the theory we teach and what happens in practice. Convince them that the best way to learn is “do it by yourself”. Our students learn to code different investment strategies and risk management tools in Python. We are proud to provide them with the needed resources and platforms (such as Nuvolos) to enhance their learning experience.
What is most challenging in your work?
Handling urgent deadlines for paper submissions with tons of other (professional and personal) commitments
When it comes to grading, I think students would describe me as...
fair
Life Outside the University
What are your hobbies?
Sports, cooking, and traveling.
Fun fact about you:
I couldn’t practice sports as much as I wished when I was young, but I am so pleased to have two athletic kids (my 15 years old son and 10 years old daughter). My son ended up the fourth-best Sprinter in Switzerland as of 2021.
How will you spend your summer?
Enjoying family time, doing research, and traveling.
Favourite place(s) of vacation:
No doubt Tunisia and its wonderful beaches! I love also to be in Italy and Spain.
Favourite book(s):
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez.
What is currently your favourite movie or show, and what is it about it that you enjoy?
Currently just following my 10 years daughter’s movie tastes so I let you guess what I am watching…
What is your favourite type of music or artist(s) and why?
Arabic music, my best artist is Oum Kalthoum for her incredibly dynamic and strong voice and her creativity.
If you could have lunch with anyone in the world (dead or alive), who would it be and why?
My dad whom I miss so much and who was my great inspiration.
What’s one thing about you that your students don’t know?
They might not know how much I care and want to share knowledge.
Thoughts and Reflections
If I had my way, the university of the future would have much more of this:
Computer software training is so much needed in this data-driven world. Towards more integration of the fields (especially more exposure of econ/finance students to physics and math).
In my opinion, financial institutions today need to do a better job at:
walking the talk when it comes to their investment styles, risk exposures, and impact investing.
Any message would you like to give to the students?
You should have high expectations for your career and work hard towards completing your pre-set objectives. Our Finance master programs at the University of Geneva provide you with the right tools and resources.
Recent Publications
- Chaieb, I., H., Langlois, and O. Scaillet. 2021. Factors and Risk Premia in Individual International Stock Returns. Journal of Financial Economics. 141 (2), 669-692.
- Chaieb, I., V., Errunza, and H., Langlois. 2021. How is Liquidity Priced in Global Markets? Review of Financial Studies, 34 (9), 4216–4268.
- Chaieb, I., V., Errunza, and Y. Lu, 2021. Who Invests in and What Drives Equity Ownership Around the World. Working paper. Receiver of the GFC 2021 Top paper award.
- Chaieb, I., V., Errunza, and Y. Lu, 2022b. Does ESG predict foreign and domestic institutional investor demand?. Working paper.