Associate Professor Konark Saxena
Associate Professor

Associate Professor Konark Saxena

Ph.D. in Finance, Anderson School of Management, UCLA 2008–2011         
Advisors: Richard Roll, Bhagwan Chowdhry, and Mark Grinblatt


M.B.A., Indian School of Business 2005–2006


Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology 1998–2002       

Business School
School of Banking & Finance

Konark's research expertise and industry experience includes various aspects of portfolio construction such as portfolio optimization, asset allocation, factor investing, and macro-finance. He also researches the asset management industry's organization, and how fund manager incentives and their efforts in producing original research influences their alpha production.

Konark also works on the connection between financial markets and climate risk.

Konark has published in top finance journals including Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, and Journal of Corporate Finance. His research has also been published in leading industry journals such as Journal of Portfolio Management. His research received media coverage in Forbes, UBS's "Academic Research Monitor", the Practical Applications journal,  and Barclay's "Trending Academic Research".

On sabbatical, Konark visited University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), University of Notre Dame University, McGill University, and University of British Columbia.

Konark also has industry experience in constructing factor portfolios, multi-asset portfolios, macro factors, sustainability investing, carbon aware investing, downside risk protection, and enhanced indexing. He worked for one of the largest asset managers, UBS Asset Management, while on leave from UNSW, where he applied his research expertise to help various division in the firm.
Phone
+61 2 9065 1806
E-mail
k.saxena@unsw.edu.au
Location
UNSW Business School - Ref E12 Level 3, Office 316

Publications

Awards

2016 Best Paper Award at the 6th Behavioral Finance and Capital Markets Conference for “Is the active fund management industry concentrated enough?” (with D Feldman and J Xu)

2013 Stephen A. Ross Best Paper Award among articles published in Finance Research Letters in 2013 for “Development and freedom as risk management” (with B Chowdhry and R Roll)

Grants

Media

I was on the program committee for SFS Cavalcade Asia Pacific (2018, 2019), and International Conference on Emerging Economies (ICEE-2012). I  have served as a referee for Review of Financial Studies, Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Journal of Financial Markets, Journal of Empirical Finance, Journal of Banking and Finance; Quarterly Journal of Finance; Journal of Econometric Methods; The Financial Review; Energy Economics; Finance Research Letters.

  • Published in industry journals such as Journal of Portfolio Management (with Mark Grinblatt, UCLA) and Journal of Investing (with Gerald Garvey, Blackrock)
  • Invited to present at industry conferences such as J.P. Morgan's Quantference and UBS Equity Market Conference
  • Media coverage including in Forbes, UBS's "Academic Research Monitor", the Practical Applications journal, and Barclay's "Trending Academic Research".

I teach courses in the areas of investments, quantitative methods, and financial technology.

  • FINS5513  Investments and Portfolio Selection
  • FINS5517 Applied Portfolio Management and Modelling
  • MFIN6201 Empirical Techniques and Applications in Finance
  • ZZBU8507 Robo-Advisory and Portfolio Optimisation