March 11, 2010

Finance professor recognized as prolific author

by Christi Mathis

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Wallace N. “Dave” Davidson, the Henry J. Rehn Professor of Finance at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, is one of the most prolific authors of published literature in finance during the last half century.

That’s the upshot of a paper by Jean L. Heck and Phillip L. Cooley, of St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia and Trinity University in San Antonio, respectively. In “Most Prolific Authors in the Finance Literature: 1959-2008” Davidson ranks 62nd for his published work in 26 “core” finance journals and 406th for his work in seven leading finance journals during the 50-year span.

“I am extremely pleased by the ranking,” Davidson said. “The majority of my career has been at SIUC so the ranking should also reflect positively on all of the wonderful colleagues and doctoral students with whom I’ve had the privilege to work. The finance department is full of wonderful teachers and researchers and it is very exciting to work with all of these talented people.”

Davidson’s research and published papers cover a wide diversity of finance topics but his current focus has been primarily on corporate governance and corporate control, he said. He also has extensive publishing in management journals to his credit, a fact this ranking doesn’t reflect.

The Heck/Cooley rankings include only faculty with published works, not all higher education faculty, Davidson notes. The “Most Prolific Authors” study indicates that the rankings “include 977 prolific authors with six or more appearances in seven leading finance journals and 983 prolific authors with 10 or more appearances in 26 core finance journals. These authors demonstrate great durability in navigating the vagaries of referees and the demands of editors. They represent a small minority of thousands of authors during the period 1959 to 2008.”

Davidson is completing his 21st year at SIUC, arriving in 1989 as a professor in the College of Business. He was previously an endowed professor at Louisiana Tech University from 1987 to 1989 and taught at the University of North Texas 1982 to 1987 following two years at Otterbein College while completing his dissertation. He also worked in industry for several years.

Davidson earned his bachelor’s degree and MBA at Wright State University. His doctorate is from The Ohio State University. He’s earned a number of honors at SIUC including Outstanding Research Honor Roll Award and Outstanding Undergraduate Teacher Honor Rolls Award for the College of Business in 2007, along with more than a dozen other teaching awards from the college through the years.

In his free time, Davidson enjoys competitive swimming and competing in triathlons.

“Dr. Davidson’s research and publishing successes have made a profound impact in financial research. His contributions benefit our academic pursuits as a college and the quality of education received by our students. We are very proud to have him as a member of our faculty,” said J. Dennis Cradit, dean of the College of Business.

Ike Mathur, finance professor emeritus at SIUC, also appeared in the rankings. He placed 364th for publications in 26 core finance journals and 588th for his works in seven leading finance journals.