Mark J. Garmaise

Biography

Mark Garmaise graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with an A.B. in mathematics and philosophy before receiving his Ph.D. in finance from Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1998. He was appointed assistant professor at Chicago Booth and later joined UCLA Anderson as a visiting assistant professor of finance in 2001. He was promoted to associate professor of finance with tenure in 2008 and to full professor in 2015. He also served as dean of the full-time MBA program between 2014 and 2015.

As a corporate finance scholar, Garmaise has focused his research on using empirical data to investigate the effects of asymmetric information and incomplete contracting as they relate to real estate markets and entrepreneurial firms. Although the theory of asymmetric information and incomplete contracting is well-developed, there has been little research into the empirical identification of cause and effect in markets. With careful and ingenious data analysis, his papers have made valuable contributions in these important but neglected areas.

Garmaise’s primary research interests are in the areas of corporate finance, real estate, entrepreneurship and banking. He is an award-winning instructor and highly respected authority on finance, venture capital and private equity. With his co-author Tobias Moskowitz (Ph.D. ’98), he received the 2004 BGI Brennan Award for the best paper published and the 2005 BGI Brennan Runner-Up Award for the best paper published, both in the Review of Financial Studies.

Garmaise teaches the core corporate finance course and an elective on venture capital and private equity. He has been recognized with numerous awards and has published in numerous journals, including the Review of Financial Studies, the Journal of Finance and the Quarterly Journal of Economics.