About

Dr. Gordon Bodnar is the Morris W. Offit Professor of International Finance at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He has served as the Director of the International Economics Program at Johns Hopkins SAIS since 2005 and is the founding director of the school's Master of International Economics and Finance degree. His academic background includes a PhD in Economics from Princeton University, obtained in 1991. Prior to his current role, he was an assistant professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester, and has held visiting professorships at Frankfurt University in Germany and at the Wharton School. His research focuses on international and corporate finance, with specific topics including corporate exchange rate exposure, foreign exchange risk management, the valuation of multinational operations, and financial disclosures. Dr. Bodnar's work has been published in major academic journals across finance, economics, and accounting, and he is currently on the editorial board of European Financial Management. He has also served as an associate editor of the Journal of International Financial Management and Accounting, and has held appointments as a research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research and as a visiting scholar at the International Monetary Fund. At Johns Hopkins SAIS, he teaches master's-level courses in corporate finance and international finance, and he also teaches international corporate finance in the Wharton MBA for Executives program, as well as courses for Executive MBA programs at Cornell University and the Carey Business School. Dr. Bodnar has received eight Excellence in Teaching awards from Wharton, Johns Hopkins SAIS, and Cornell, and he is an occasional lecturer in executive education programs and a consultant to the financial industry, multinational firms, and international research organizations.

Research topics

• Business
• Economics
• Monetary economics
• Econometrics
• Financial economics

Selected publications

• A View Inside Corporate Risk Management

  Management Science · 2019-02-26 · 65 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Why do firms manage risk? According to various theories, firms hedge to mitigate credit rationing, to alleviate information asymmetry, and to reduce the risk of financial distress. However, empirical support for these theories is mixed. Our paper addresses the “why” by directly asking the managers that make risk management decisions. Our results suggest that personal risk aversion in combination with other executive traits plays a key role in hedging. Our analysis also indicates that risk-averse executives are more likely to rely on (more conservative) fat-tailed distributions to estimate risk exposure. While most theories of risk management ignore the human dimension, our results suggest that managerial traits play an important role. This paper was accepted by Karl Diether, finance.

  PublisherDOI

• The Theory and Practice of Corporate Risk Management: Evidence from the Field

  Financial Management · 2018-07-27 · 81 citations

  articleSenior author

  Abstract We survey more than 1,100 risk managers from around the world regarding their risk management policies. We find evidence consistent with some traditional theories of risk management, but not with all. We then study “why” or “why not” firms hedge and find that almost 90% of risk managers in nonfinancial firms hedge to increase expected cash flow. We also find that 70% to 80% of risk managers hedge to smooth earnings or to satisfy shareholders’ expectations. Our analysis also suggests that regulatory changes implemented to increase market stability (e.g., Dodd‐Frank Act) could discourage corporate hedging. Finally, we provide evidence regarding hedging in six areas of risk: interest rate, foreign exchange, commodity, energy, credit, and geopolitical. We find that operational hedging is more common than financial hedging in all risk areas except foreign exchange.

  PublisherDOI

• The Theory and Practice of Corporate Risk Management: Evidence from the Field

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2018-01-01 · 24 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• OTC Derivatives and Global Economic Activity: An Empirical Analysis

  Journal of risk and financial management · 2017-06-14 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st author

  That the global market for derivatives has expanded beyond recognition is well known. What is not know is how this market interacts with economic activity. We provide the first empirical characterization of interdependencies between OECD economic activity and the global OTC derivatives market. To this end, we apply a vector-error correction model to OTC derivatives disaggregated across instruments and counterparties. The results indicate that with one exception, the heterogeneity of OTC contracts is too pronounced to be reliably summarized by our measures of economic activity. The one exception is interest-rate derivatives held by Other Financial Institutions.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A Guide to Corporate Risk Management

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2014-01-01 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• A View Inside Corporate Risk Management

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2014-01-01 · 19 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Crossing the lines: The conditional relation between exchange rate exposure and stock returns in emerging and developed markets

  Journal of International Money and Finance · 2012-01-18 · 103 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Crossing the Lines: The Conditional Relation between Exchange Rate Exposure and Stock Returns in Emerging and Developed Markets

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2012-01-01 · 20 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Risk Management for Italian Non‐Financial Firms: Currency and Interest Rate Exposure

  European Financial Management · 2012-08-08 · 35 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract This paper surveys risk management practices among Italian non‐financial firms. This paper's contribution lies in investigating derivative usage particular to Italian businesses, a group whose public disclosure of derivative instruments is not routine. Italy is characterised by a high percentage of small and medium sized family run firms. The survey examines determinants of currency and interest rate derivative use with respect currency and to firm size, geographical location, rating, industry, access to capital markets and educated management. The results from the logistic regressions suggest that Italian non‐financial firms’ use of derivative contracts is strongly influenced by these characteristics .

  PublisherDOI

• Managing Risk Management

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2011-01-01 · 54 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Joseph Weintrop

  Baruch College

  27 shared

• John R. Graham

  21 shared

• Campbell R. Harvey

  National Bureau of Economic Research

  21 shared

• Abe de Jong

  University of Groningen

  20 shared

• Leonardo Bartolini

  Federal Reserve Bank of New York

  20 shared

• Söhnke M. Bartram

  19 shared

• Richard C. Marston

  18 shared

• Lee‐Seok Hwang

  17 shared

Awards & honors

• Eight Excellence in Teaching awards from Wharton, Johns Hopk…