
Professor Ian Tonks
BA, MSc, PhD
Expertise
I undertake research and teaching in the area of financial markets and the financial behaviours of firms.
Current positions
Professor of Finance
School of Accounting and Finance
Contact
Media contact
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Biography
I completed a PhD awarded by the University of Warwick in 1984 specialising in industrial economics, but in the late-eighties my research and teaching interests shifted to financial economics studying the way that financial markets operate (stock price volatility and market microstructure) and the financial behaviour of corporations (new issues and directors' trading). I held a series of positions at the University of Exeter and London School of Economics, before moving to a chair in finance at the University of Bristol in 1995. I developed an interest in pension economics, annuities and fund management as part of the research focus of CMPO. I moved to the University of Exeter in 2003, University of Bath in 2010 before returning to Bristol in 2018.
Research interests
Ian Tonks is a Professor of Finance in the School of Accounting and Finance at the University of Bristol. His research focuses on pension economics; annuities; fund management; directors’ trading; and market microstructure. He has published in leading finance, economics, accounting and management journals. He has previously held permanent positions at universities of Bath, Exeter, Bristol and the London School of Economics; and has held visiting positions at: Bank of England (Senior Houblon-Norman Fellow); Financial Services Authority (ESRC Business Fellowship). He is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences; member of the ESRC’s Grant Advisory Panel 2012-2018; panel member for UKRI's Future Leaders Fellowship Scheme 2019-21; member of sub-panel 19 Business & Management for REF2014; chair of Business & Economics panel for Hong Kong's RAE2020; and deputy-chair of sub-panel 17 Business & Management for REF2021. He has acted as an expert witness in a legal case on financial regulation, and has provided advice to a number of commercial and regulatory organisations including London Stock Exchange, Competition Commission, Financial Services Authority, and Financial Conducts Authority; and has advised HM Treasury, Bank of England, Department of Work and Pensions, and House of Commons Work & Pensions Select Committee on issues in pensions.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
Optimal Consumption Patterns of the Retired with Non-income risk: implications for an Ageing Population
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Accounting and FinanceDates
01/09/2000 to 31/08/2002
TESTING FOR INFORMATION ASYMMETRIES AT EARNINGS ANNOUNCEMENT DATES
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of EconomicsDates
01/09/1998 to 01/09/2001
Thesis supervisions
Publications
Recent publications
28/08/2021Smart defaults: Determining the number of default funds in a pension scheme
British Accounting Review
Introduction to special issue on sustainable corporate governance
British Journal of Management
Fund Flows, Manager Changes, and Performance Persistence
Review of Finance
Insider trading and the post-earnings announcement drift
Journal of Business Finance and Accounting
Network centrality and delegated investment performance
Journal of Financial Economics
Teaching
I have taught a range of topics in finance units over the years at undergraduate, postgraduate, PhD, and executive levels. These units have included introductory level accounting and finance; intermediate finance (both asset pricing and corporate finance); econometrics, and more advanced topics including financial markets, bond pricing, international finance, derivatives, corporate finance, pension economics and pension finance.