Two members of Wharton’s finance faculty — Sylvain Catherine and Lu Liu — were named among this year’s winners of the American Finance Association’s First Prizes, awarded for outstanding research published in the Journal of Finance, one of the field’s most prestigious publications.
Both papers were previously recognized with Marshall Blume Prizes in Financial Research, awarded annually by Wharton’s Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research to unpublished working papers. These awards celebrate high-potential research, and for Professors Catherine and Liu, foreshadowed national recognition by the broader finance community.
Dimensional Fund Advisors Prize:
Social Security and Trends in Wealth Inequality
Professor Sylvain Catherine, with co-authors Max Miller (Wharton PhD graduate) of Harvard Business School, and Natasha Sarin of Yale, received the Dimensional Fund Advisors First Prize for “Social Security and Trends in Wealth Inequality.”
This paper shows that top wealth shares have not changed much over the last three decades when Social Security is properly accounted for.
Brattle Group Prize:
Mortgage Lock-In, Mobility, and Labor Reallocation
Professor Lu Liu, with co-author Julia Fonseca, received the Brattle Group First Prize in Corporate Finance for “Mortgage Lock-In, Mobility, and Labor Reallocation.”
This paper finds that a 1 percentage point decline in the difference between mortgage rates locked in at origination and current rates reduces moving by 9% overall and 16% between 2022 and 2024.
These awards highlight the global impact of Wharton’s faculty research across both public policy and corporate finance.
The Marshall Blume Prizes in Financial Research are awarded annually to the best Wharton unpublished working papers in financial economics written during the prior calendar year. Learn more about the Marshall Blume Prizes.