Bill McDonald
Bill McDonald
Professor of Finance, Thomas A. and James J. Bruder Chair in Administrative Leadership
Faculty Page
Bill McDonald has been at the University of Notre Dame since receiving his PhD from Arizona State University in 1979. He worked in a vice president position at the Schwab Center for Investment Research in San Francisco during the Internet boom/bust. At Schwab he developed online financial planning software, including a patented portfolio optimization package. He has consulted for major investment banks, brokerages, stock exchanges and served as an expert witness. Professor McDonald’s research is predominantly in capital markets and he has more than 50 publications spanning leading journals in finance, accounting, management science and economics. His research has been cited in The Wall Street Journal, The London Times, The New Yorker, Barron’s, Quartz and other popular press outlets. The textual analysis technology he developed along with Tim Loughran for their 2011 Journal of Finance paper is used by Google, Fidelity, Citadel, Dow Jones, S&P Global, and WRDS. Teaching in the area of investments, McDonald received a Kaneb Teaching Award in both 1999 and 2003. The Applied Investment Management course he taught for more than a decade manages more than $15 million of Notre Dame’s endowment. More recently he designed and is teaching a course entitled Python for Finance and also teaches some graduate courses covering cryptocurrencies. He serves at Notre Dame as Professor of Finance and is the Thomas A. and James J. Bruder Chair in Administrative Leadership.
Highlighted Research:
“Textual Analysis in Accounting and Finance: A Survey” with Tim Loughran, Journal of Accounting Research 2016.
https://ssrn.com/abstract=2504147
Abstract:
Relative to quantitative methods traditionally used in accounting and finance, textual analysis is substantially less precise. Thus, understanding the art is of equal importance to understanding the science. In this survey we describe the nuances of the method and, as users of textual analysis, some of the tripwires in implementation. We also review the contemporary textual analysis literature and highlight areas of future research.