Dermot Murphy, PhD
Associate Professor
Associate Director of the International Center for Futures and Derivatives (ICFD)
Department of Finance
Contact
Building & Room:
UH 2114
Address:
601 S. Morgan St., Chicago, IL 60607
Office Phone:
Email:
CV Link:
Related Sites:
About
Dr. Dermot Murphy is an Associate Professor of Finance at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) College of Business Administration. His research bridges the complex mechanics of market microstructure with the real-world economic realities of public finance.
Dr. Murphy has built a distinct academic footprint by examining how information ecosystems—ranging from high-frequency algorithmic trading desks to local municipal newspapers—directly impact market liquidity, asset pricing, and government borrowing costs.
Before his current roles, he served as a Visiting Financial Economist at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from 2019 to 2020, providing critical structural analysis during the height of the COVID-19 trading floor closures. He is also the co-founder and co-organizer of the global Virtual Municipal Finance Workshop.
Selected Publications
- Vestigial Tails? Floor Brokers at the Close in Modern Electronic Markets (with Edwin Hu), Management Science (2026), vol. 72(5), 3974–3996).
- “Good for your Fiscal Health? The Effect of the Affordable Care Act on Healthcare Borrowing Costs” (with Pengjie Gao and Change Lee), Journal of Financial Economics (2022), vol. 145(2), 464–488
- “Financing Dies in Darkness? The Impact of Newspaper Closures on Public Finance” (with Pengjie Gao and Chang Lee), Journal of Financial Economics (2020), vol. 135(2), 445–467.
- “Do High-Frequency Traders Improve your Implementation Shortfall?” (with Robert Korajczyk), Journal of Investment Management (2020), vol. 18(1), 18–33.
- “High-Frequency Market Making to Large Institutional Trades” (with Robert Korajczyk), Review of Financial Studies (2019), vol. 32(3), 1034–1067.
- “Municipal Borrowing Costs and State Policies for Distressed Municipalities” (with Pengjie Gao and Chang Lee), Journal of Financial Economics (2019), vol. 132(2), 404–426.
Service to Community
At UIC, Dr. Murphy is highly involved in shaping the future of the department, serving as the Co-chair of the UIC Finance Conference and Co-chair of the UIC Finance PhD Committee, where he directly mentors the next generation of financial economists and quantitative researchers.
Notable Honors
2018, Government Finance Research Center research grant ($30,000), Government Finance Research Center
2018, Best Paper Award at the Brookings Municipal Finance Conference, Brookings Institution
2014, Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada data grant, Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada
Education
PhD Finance, Northwestern University
MSc, Finance University of British Columbia
BComm (Honors) and BSc, Pure Mathematics, Memorial University of Newfoundland