Kenneth French

{{Infobox economist   | school_tradition = Neoclassical economics

| image = | caption =  | name = Kenneth French | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1954|3|10}} | birth_place = Franklin, New Hampshire, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | field = Financial economics | influences = | influenced = | contributions = Fama–French three-factor model | repec_prefix = e | repec_id = pfr33 }} '''Kenneth Ronald''' "'''Ken'''" '''French''' (born March 10, 1954) is the Roth Family Distinguished Professor of Finance at the Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.forbes.com/2010/06/23/mutual-fund-performance-personal-finance-fama-manger-luck.html |title=Luck Is The Key To Success For Most Top Mutual Funds |last=Taha |first=Ahmed |date=June 23, 2010 |work=Forbes |archive-date=February 13, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120213013742/http://www.forbes.com/2010/06/23/mutual-fund-performance-personal-finance-fama-manger-luck.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> He has previously been a faculty member at MIT, the Yale School of Management, and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pages/faculty/ken.french/curriculum_vitae.html|title=Kenneth R. French - Curriculum Vitae|website=mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu|access-date=2017-07-30}}</ref>

He has worked on asset pricing with Eugene Fama. They wrote a series of papers that cast doubt on the validity of the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), which posits that a stock's beta alone should explain its average return. These papers describe two factors above and beyond a stock's market beta which can explain differences in stock returns: market capitalization and "value".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fama |first=Eugene F. |author2=French, Kenneth R. |year=1992 |title=The Cross-Section of Expected Stock Returns |journal=Journal of Finance |volume=47 |issue=2 |pages=427–465 |doi=10.2307/2329112 |jstor=2329112 |citeseerx=10.1.1.556.954 }}</ref> They also offer evidence that a variety of patterns in average returns, often labeled as "anomalies" in past work, can be explained with their Fama–French three-factor model.<ref name="FamaFrench1993">{{Cite journal |last=Fama |first=Eugene F. |author2=French, Kenneth R. |year=1993 |title=Common Risk Factors in the Returns on Stocks and Bonds |journal=Journal of Financial Economics |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=3–56 |doi=10.1016/0304-405X(93)90023-5 |citeseerx=10.1.1.139.5892 }}</ref>

== Early life and education == French was born in Franklin, New Hampshire. He obtained a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Lehigh University in 1975. He then earned an MBA in 1978, an M.S. in 1981, and a Ph.D. in finance in 1983, all from the University of Rochester. In 2005, French became a Rochester Distinguished Scholar.

== Career == French has written for the ''Journal of Finance'', the ''Journal of Financial Economics'', the ''Review of Financial Studies'', the ''American Economic Review'', the ''Journal of Political Economy'', and the ''Journal of Business'', French is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, an advisory editor at the ''Journal of Financial Economics'', and a former associate editor of the ''Journal of Finance'', and the Review of Financial Studies.

Professor French was the vice president of the American Finance Association in 2005 and was the organization's president in 2007–8.<ref>[https://afajof.org/2008-annual-meeting/ 2008 AFA Annual Meeting Presidential Address] at AFA website</ref> Also in 2007, Professor French was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS).

French is a board member of Dimensional Fund Advisors<ref>{{cite web|url=http://us.dimensional.com/firm/academics.aspx|title=Kenneth French listing at Dimensional Fund Advisors|publisher=Dimensional Fund Advisors |access-date=February 5, 2015}}</ref> in Austin, Texas, where he also works as consultant and head of investment policy.

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * [https://mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pages/faculty/ken.french/curriculum_vitae.html Home page at Dartmouth College] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20101229174604/http://www.dfaus.com/library/bios/kenneth_french/ Biography at Dimensional Fund Advisors] * [http://hcr3.isiknowledge.com/author.cgi?&link1=Browse&link2=Results&id=1577 Highly Cited Researchers] * [http://scientific.thomson.com/press/2005/8288580/ 2005 Thompson Scientific Shortlisting]

{{DEFAULTSORT:French, Kenneth}} Category:1954 births Category:Living people Category:21st-century American economists Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Category:American financial economists Category:Lehigh University alumni Category:MIT Sloan School of Management faculty Category:Presidents of the American Finance Association Category:Tuck School of Business faculty Category:University of Chicago faculty Category:University of Rochester alumni Category:Yale School of Management faculty