Rate My Professor James Shilling

James D. Shilling is the George L. Ruff Endowed Chair in the Real Estate Center at DePaul University in the Driehaus College of Business, Department of Finance and Real Estate, with expertise in Property and Construction. He earned a BA from Otterbein College in 1977, an MS in Economics from Purdue University in 1978, and a PhD in Economics from Purdue University in 1981. Shilling's distinguished career includes serving as the James A. Graaskamp Professor of Real Estate and Urban Land Economics at the University of Wisconsin from 1990 to 2006. He held the Grosvenor Professorship of Real Estate Finance in the Department of Land Economy at Cambridge University, lectured at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and Louisiana State University, and worked for the Federal Home Loan Bank Board.

A prolific scholar, Shilling has authored more than 80 journal articles, studies, books, and book chapters. His research focuses on real estate investment trusts and the role of real estate in institutional investors' portfolios, mortgage securitization, commercial mortgage default, real estate asset pricing, housing finance, and urban economics. Key publications include "Capital Structure Theory and REIT Security Offerings" in The Journal of Finance (1988), "Choosing Between Fixed and Adjustable Rate Mortgages" in Journal of Money, Credit and Banking (1987), "Price Adjustment Process for Rental Office Space" in Journal of Urban Economics (1987), "How Critical is a Good Location to a Regional Shopping Center?" in Journal of Real Estate Research (1996), and recent works such as "The Misuse of Alpha in Private Equity Real Estate Investments" in Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics (2025). Shilling has profoundly influenced the field as past president of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association and past editor of Real Estate Economics. He is a fellow of the Urban Land Institute, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Real Estate Research Institute, and Homer Hoyt Advanced Studies Institute, and a Counselors of Real Estate.