Rate My Professor John Handley

Professor John Handley is a Professor of Finance in the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Melbourne. He earned his BCom and BMath degrees from the University of Newcastle in 1987, followed by an MCom (Hons) in 1994 and a PhD in 2000, both from the University of Melbourne. Prior to academia, he worked as an Audit Senior at Coopers & Lybrand and as a Corporate Finance Executive at Dominguez Barry Samuel Montagu and SBC Australia from 1985 to 1993. He joined the University of Melbourne in July 1993 and has held progressive academic roles, including promotion to Professor of Finance. His administrative contributions include serving as Head of the Department of Finance from August 2012 to February 2021, Deputy Head (Academic Programs) from 2009 to 2012, Academic Director of the Master of Applied Finance Program from 2006 to 2008, PhD Program Coordinator in 2009, and Honours Program Coordinator from 2001 to 2003. He has also been a Visiting Associate Professor of Finance at NYU Stern School of Business from 2008 to 2012 and at Columbia Business School from 2016 to 2017.

Professor Handley's research specializations encompass corporate finance, cost of capital, derivatives, valuation, and asset pricing. Key publications include Handley (2008), 'Dividend Policy: Reconciling DD with MM', Journal of Financial Economics; Handley and Maheswaran (2008), 'A Measure of the Efficacy of the Australian Imputation Tax System', Economic Record; Brailsford, Handley, and Maheswaran (2012), 'The Historical Equity Risk Premium in Australia: Post-GFC and 128 Years of Data', Accounting and Finance; Brown, Handley, and Palmer (2013), 'A Closer Look at Barrier Exchange Options', Journal of Futures Markets; Brown, Handley, and O’Day (2015), 'The Dividend Substitution Hypothesis: Australian Evidence', Abacus; and Brown, Handley, Lin, and Palmer (2016), 'Partial Differential Equations for Asian Option Prices', Quantitative Finance. He has supervised multiple PhD students to completion. Professor Handley has received numerous Dean's Certificates for Excellence in Teaching from 2003 to 2014. His expertise has influenced policy and practice through advisory roles with the Australian Accounting Standards Board, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Australian Energy Regulator, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, KPMG Corporate Finance, and New Zealand Commerce Commission, including reports on equity risk premiums and returns on equity.