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Ramesh K.S. Rao

Director of Wealth Management Program

Department:     Finance

Additional Titles:     Distinguished Teaching Professor

Industry Areas:     Bankruptcy, Corporate Litigation Damages, Corporate Restructuring, Corporate Valuation, Executive Education

Research Areas:     Asset Pricing, Corporate Finance, Informational Asymmetry, Interface between Finance and Mkt Ops, Investments

Ramesh Rao headshot

Ramesh K.S. Rao is the McDermott Centennial Professor of Banking and Finance in the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin. He is the director of the McCombs Wealth Management Center and works to expand its network and the wealth management minor.

His research interests include asset pricing, informational asymmetry, and the interface between finance and both marketing and operations management. Rao’s work has been widely published in top academic journals, and he is the author of “Financial Management: Concepts and Applications, Third Edition,” “Fundamentals of Financial Management; A Theory of the Firm’s Cost of Capital” (with E. Stevens), and “Corporate Financial Decisions Under Informational Asymmetry.”

He has also had extensive consulting experience in the areas of bankruptcy, corporate restructuring, corporate valuation, corporate litigation, and executive education. Rao testified as an expert witness in the American Express v. Visa et al. case and was appointed the sole valuation expert in the bankruptcy restructuring of First City Corp. His clients include the Federal Home Loan Banks, Intel, Burlington Northern, Deutsche Bank, and Fidelity Investments. He has also served on the boards of directors of companies.

In addition to conducting seminars for IBM, Arthur Young, Chase Banks, Texas Instruments, Motorola, Phillips Petroleum, and Halliburton, Rao has participated in several executive development programs in the U.S. and abroad.

He holds an MBA and a DBA in finance from Indiana University, as well as a B.Tech. in metallurgical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras.

ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP & AWARDS

2011

Board of Regents' Outstanding Teaching Award

 

2010

The Academy of Distinguished Teachers The University of Texas at Austin

 

2005

Outstanding Faculty Award, Mexico City MBA Program

 

2000

Outstanding Professor in the Option II (Executive) MBA Program, 1994

 

1992

CBA Foundation Award for Excellence in Education

 

1987

Jack Taylor Award for Teaching Excellence

 

Publications

Neeraj Bharadwaj, Dominique M. Hanssens, and Ramesh K S Rao. 2020. Corporate Brand Value and Cash Holdings. Journal of Brand Management 27(4), 408-420.

Ramesh K S Rao. 2015. The Public Corporation as an Intermediary Between "Main Street" and "Wall Street". Journal of Corporate Finance 34, 64-82.

Ramesh K S Rao, Hongfei Tang, and Satyajit Chandrashekar. 2013. Do Corporate Cash Holdings Predict Stock Returns? Journal of Investing 22(2), 29-39.

Ramesh K S Rao and Genaro J. Gutierrez. 2010. Shareholders' Wealth-Maximizing Operating Decisions and Risk Management Practices in a Mixed Contracts Economy. Production and Operations Management 19(4), 418-433.

Ramesh K S Rao and Bharadwaj, Neeraj. 2008. Marketing Initiatives, Expected Cash Flows, and Shareholders’ Wealth. Journal of Marketing 72, 16-26.

Ramesh K S Rao and Stevens, Eric C. 2007. A Theory of the Firm’s Cost of Capital: How Debt Affects the Firm’s Risk, Value, Tax Rate and the Government’s Tax Claim. World Scientific Publishing Company.

Ramesh K S Rao and White, S. 2006. The Creation of First City Financial Corporation: A Case Study of the Bankruptcy Process, in International Journal of Financial Education, REPRINTED, in A Casebook on Corporate Renewal, Platt, H. D. and Platt, M. B. eds. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.

Ramesh K S Rao and Stevens, E. 2006. The Firm's Cost of Capital, Its Effective Marginal Tax Rate, and the Value of the Government's Tax Claim. The Berkeley Electronic Journals in Economic Analysis & Policy 6:1:3, 1465-1521.

Ramesh K S Rao and Stevens, Eric C.. 2006. The Firm's Cost of Capital, Its Effective Marginal Tax Rate, and the Value of the Government's Tax Claim. Topics in Economic Analysis & Policy 6, 1-55.

Ramesh K S Rao and White, S. 2005. "Sulfur Dioxide Allowances: The Price of Pollution". Journal of Financial Education REPRINTED in ICFAI Journal of Environmental Law 31, 118-126.

Vipin Agrawal, Meeta Kothare, Ramesh K S Rao, and Pavan Wadhwa. 2004. Bid-ask Spreads, Informed Investors, and the Firm’s Financial Condition. Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance 44, 58-76.

Ramesh K S Rao, D. Sokolow, and D. White. 1997. The Effect of Deteriorating Financial Performance on Director Liability. Directorship 33, 3-6.

Ramesh K S Rao, D.S. Sokolow, and D. White. 1996. Fiduciary Duty a la Lyonnais: An Economic Perspective on Corporate Governance in a Financially Distressed Firm. Journal of Corporation Law 22, 53-78.

Ramesh K S Rao. 1995. Financial Management Concepts and Applications, 3rd Ed.. Cincinnati, OH: South-Western Publishing Company.

Y. Brook and Ramesh K S Rao. 1994. Does Limiting Directors' Liability Affect Stock Prices? Directorship 19, 3-5.

Y. Brook and Ramesh K S Rao. 1994. Shareholder Wealth Effects of Liability Limitation Provisions. Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis 29, 481-497.

Ramesh K S Rao and S. White. 1994. The Dividend Payouts of Private Firms: Evidence from Tax Court Records. Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis 29, 481-497.

C.B. Barry, D.W. French, and Ramesh K S Rao. 1991. Estimation Risk and Adaptive Behavior in the Pricing of Options. Financial Review 26, 15-31.

Ramesh K S Rao. 1991. Financial Management Concepts and Applications, 2nd Ed.. New York, NY: Macmillan Publishing.

A. Burnett, Seha Tinic, and Ramesh K S Rao. 1991. Subsidization Among S&Ls Under the Flat Rate Deposit Insurance System: Some Empirical Estimates. Journal of Financial Services Research 5, 143-164.

E. Ancel and Ramesh K S Rao. 1990. Stock Returns and Option Prices: An Exploratory Investigation. Journal of Financial Research 13, 173-185.

Van Harlow and Ramesh K S Rao. 1989. Asset Pricing in a Generalized Mean-Lower Partial Moment Framework: Theory and Evidence. Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis 24, 285-311.

Ramesh K S Rao. 1989. Fundamentals of Financial Management. New York, NY: Macmillan Publishing Co.

G. Boyle and Ramesh K S Rao. 1988. Mean-Generalized Coefficient of Variation Analysis and Expected Utility Maximization. Southern Economic Journal 55, 1-8.

W.Y. Lee and Ramesh K S Rao. 1988. Mean-Lower Partial Moment Valuation with Lognormally Distributed Returns. Management Science 34, 446-453.

Ramesh K S Rao, J. Finkelstein, W.Y. Lee, and R. Chiang. 1984. Adverse Selection as an Explanation of Credit Rationing and Different Lender Types. Journal of Macroeconomics 6, 159-180.

Ramesh K S Rao and S.D. Smith. 1983. Determinants of the Foreign Exchange Bias: A New Methodology. Mexico City: Current Economic and Financial Issues of the North American and Caribbean Countries, 304-308.

Ramesh K S Rao. 1982. The Impact of Yield Changes on the Systematic Risk of Bonds. Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis 17, 115-127.

John D. Martin and Ramesh K S Rao. 1981. Another Look at the Use of Options Pricing Theory to Evaluate Real Asset Investment Opportunities. Journal of Business Finance and Accounting 8, 421-430.

Ramesh K S Rao. 1981. Modern Option Pricing Models: A Dichotomous Classification. Journal of Financial Research 4, 33-44.

W.Y. Lee, Ramesh K S Rao, and J.F.G. Auchmuty. 1981. Option Pricing in a Lognormal Securities Market with Discrete Trading. Journal of Financial Economics 9, 75-101.

Ramesh K S Rao, W.Y. Lee, and UJ.F. G. Auchmuty. 1981. Option Pricing in a Lognormal Securities Market with Discrete Trading. Journal of Financial Economics.

J. Finkelstein and Ramesh K S Rao. 1980. Credit Rationing, Regulation and Financial Intermediation (Abstract), in Proceedings of a Conference on Bank Structure and Competition, Chicago, IL: Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

Ramesh K S Rao and Stephen P. Magee. 1980. The Currency of Denomination of International Trade Contracts, in Exchange Risk and Exposure: Current Developments in International Financial Management, Richard M. Levich and Clas G. Wihlborg, eds. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.

Stephen P. Magee and Ramesh K S Rao. 1980. Vehicle and Non-Vehicle Currencies in International Trade. American Economic Review 70, 368-373.

Ramesh K S Rao. 1978. Risk-Neutral and Non Risk-Neutral Call Option Prices: A Synthesis, in Proceedings of the Southwestern Finance Association,