Pastor To Select Fama Over Greist for Investments TA Position
Evan Raine
Issue date: 4/2/01 Section: GSB News
In a departure from the expected, Chicago Business has learned that Assistant Professor Lubos Pastor will select Professor Eugene Fama over GSB student Revere Greist to serve as teaching assistant for the forthcoming Investments class. A formal announcement is scheduled for later this week.
Professor Fama, the Robert R. McCormick Distinguished Service Professor of Finance, is the father of efficient market theory as well as its leading champion. His pioneering work in finance includes his 3-factor model (Fama-French) which represents the strongest challenge of the Capital Asset Pricing Model. Revere Greist is a first-year GSB student from Madison, Wisconsin.
When Chicago Business approached Professor Pastor to discuss the decision he was rejoicing in the knowledge that he is not the Fed Chairman ("I would not like to be Alan Greenspan right now"). However, he put aside this pressing concern to grant this publication an exclusive interview. Excerpts of his remarks appear below:
OK, so what were the results of my beauty parade ? Did I select Eugene Fama, who is on the faculty here, or did I select Revere Greist?…I selected Fama. Yes, Fama. And why? OK, so let us discuss the merits of each individual. Revere, he is…he…OK, so he likes to sit in the front of the classroom. He consistently places his homework in the designated homework box. And he performed adequately on the midterm. OK, so this is good intuition. Now, let's test your intuition further. Why did I select Fama ? Did his repudiation of CAPM play a role in my decision – yes, it did. And why ? Yes, because I felt that students might benefit more from someone who understands CAPM well enough to challenge some of its fundamental assumptions as opposed to someone who…someone who…understands it to a slightly lesser degree…
Professor Fama, who began teaching at the GSB in 1963, when asked about the seemingly curious desire to TA, acknowledged his admiration for Pastor, saying "I am excited to work with Assistant Professor Pastor. When I see him, I see myself – a young Eugene Fama." The twenty-seven year old Pastor joined the GSB faculty in 1999 after becoming one of the youngest graduates in the history of the Wharton School PhD program (with the benefit of some AP credit). Sources inside the GSB finance department, however, suggest other motivations may be at play. Privately, they suggest that the senior finance professor has "had it up to here" with these "young whippersnapper PhD's breezing in to teach Investments and skimming over the Fama-French model." In fact, Fama has declared that "beta is dead and if I have to go down to Stuart Hall and kill it myself, I will."
Professor Fama, the Robert R. McCormick Distinguished Service Professor of Finance, is the father of efficient market theory as well as its leading champion. His pioneering work in finance includes his 3-factor model (Fama-French) which represents the strongest challenge of the Capital Asset Pricing Model. Revere Greist is a first-year GSB student from Madison, Wisconsin.
When Chicago Business approached Professor Pastor to discuss the decision he was rejoicing in the knowledge that he is not the Fed Chairman ("I would not like to be Alan Greenspan right now"). However, he put aside this pressing concern to grant this publication an exclusive interview. Excerpts of his remarks appear below:
OK, so what were the results of my beauty parade ? Did I select Eugene Fama, who is on the faculty here, or did I select Revere Greist?…I selected Fama. Yes, Fama. And why? OK, so let us discuss the merits of each individual. Revere, he is…he…OK, so he likes to sit in the front of the classroom. He consistently places his homework in the designated homework box. And he performed adequately on the midterm. OK, so this is good intuition. Now, let's test your intuition further. Why did I select Fama ? Did his repudiation of CAPM play a role in my decision – yes, it did. And why ? Yes, because I felt that students might benefit more from someone who understands CAPM well enough to challenge some of its fundamental assumptions as opposed to someone who…someone who…understands it to a slightly lesser degree…
Professor Fama, who began teaching at the GSB in 1963, when asked about the seemingly curious desire to TA, acknowledged his admiration for Pastor, saying "I am excited to work with Assistant Professor Pastor. When I see him, I see myself – a young Eugene Fama." The twenty-seven year old Pastor joined the GSB faculty in 1999 after becoming one of the youngest graduates in the history of the Wharton School PhD program (with the benefit of some AP credit). Sources inside the GSB finance department, however, suggest other motivations may be at play. Privately, they suggest that the senior finance professor has "had it up to here" with these "young whippersnapper PhD's breezing in to teach Investments and skimming over the Fama-French model." In fact, Fama has declared that "beta is dead and if I have to go down to Stuart Hall and kill it myself, I will."