Larry Harris

Larry Harris holds the Fred V. Keenan Chair in Finance at the USC Marshall School of Business. His research, teaching, and consulting address regulatory and practitioner issues in trading and in investment management. He has written extensively about trading rules, transaction costs, and market regulations. His introduction to the economics of trading, Trading and Exchanges: Market Microstructure for Practitioners (Oxford University Press: 2003), is widely regarded as a “must read” for entrants into the securities industry.

Chairman Harvey Pitt appointed Dr. Harris to serve as Chief Economist of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in July 2002 where he continued to serve under Chairman William Donaldson through June 2004. As Chief Economist, Harris was the primary advisor to the Commission on all economic issues. He contributed extensively to the development of regulations implementing Sarbanes-Oxley, the resolution of the mutual fund timing crisis, the specification of Regulation NMS (National Market System), the promotion of bond price transparency, and numerous legal cases. Harris also directed the SEC Office of Economic Analysis in which 35 economists, analysts, and support staff engage in regulatory analysis, litigation support, and basic economic research.

Professor Harris currently serves on the boards of Interactive Brokers, Inc. (IBKR), the Clipper Fund, Inc. (CFIMX), and CFALA, the Los Angeles Society of Financial Analysts. He is the director of the USC Marshall School Center for Investment Studies and the research coordinator of the Institute for Quantitative Research in Finance (the Q-Group). He is an former associate editor of the Journal of Finance, the Review of Financial Studies, and the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis. Other professional service has included year-long assignments to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and to the New York Stock Exchange immediately following the Stock Market Crash of 1987. Dr. Harris has also worked at UNX, Inc., an electronic pure agency institutional equity broker, and at Madison Tyler, LLC, a broker-dealer engaged in electronic proprietary trading in various markets.

Dr. Harris received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago in 1982.