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Dr Ali Ataullah

Profile summary

  • Central Academic Staff
  • Professor of Finance
  • The Faculty of Business & Law
  • The Open University Business School
  • Department for Accounting & Finance
  • ali.ataullah

Professional biography

After my MBA in Banking and Finance, I obtained MSc in Corporate and International Finance from Durham University. I briefly worked in a bank as a relationship manager (evaluating creditworthiness of firms).  I then obtained my PhD from Durham University, focusing on the link between economic growth and the efficiency/productivity of banks. I started my academic career as a research associate in 2004 in Loughborough University. Prior to joining the Open University as a Professor in Finance in August 2017, I was a reader in corporate finance and the director of postgraduate research programme in the School of Business and Economics, Loughborough University. 

Research interests

My current research interests include corporate diversification, within-firm allocation of resources, security issuances, public procurement and mechanism design. I have worked on other topics in corporate finance such as insider trading, financing constraints and asset sell off, and bank efficiency and productivity. I have published in academic journals of international excellence, including Abacus, Accounting and Business Research, British Journal of Management, European Financial Management, European Journal of Finance, Financial Review and Human Resources Management (US).

I welcome high quality PhD applications in corporate finance, organisational economics and public finance. My ongoing research focuses on the significance of asymmetric information and agency problems within organisations (public and private). 

Teaching interests

I have extensive teaching experience in Financial Management & Corporate Policy, Advanced Corporate Finance, Financial Risk Management and Financial Derivatives at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. I have also taught on full-time and executive MBA programmes. 

Impact and engagement

I am an Associate Editor for the European Journal of Finance and an External Examiner for the Accounting and Finance Programmes at the Management School, University of Sheffield. I am also a regular reviewer for funding applications submitted to the British Academy.

I have reviewed for British Journal of Management; Journal of International Business Studies; Journal of Banking and Finance; Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money; European Journal of Finance; Managerial Finance; Journal of Comparative Economics; Applied Economics; Applied Financial Economics; Journal of Economics and Business; Service Industries Journal; Economic Issues; Business and Politics; International Journal of Financial Services Management. 

I have an extensive network of collaborators in leading business schools in and outside the UK including Cambridge, Leeds, Nottingham, Strathclyde and Sydney. 

Publications

What explains delays in public procurement decisions? (2023)
He, Chusu; Milne, Alistair and Ataullah, Ali
Economic Modelling, Article 106201

Social capital, environmental justice and carcinogenic waste releases: US county-level evidence, 1998–2019 (2023)
Ataullah, Ali; Coleman, Simeon; Le, Hang and Wang, Zilong
Regional Studies, 57(11) (pp. 2220-2237)

Corporate diversification and downsizing decisions: International evidence from sharp and sudden performance shocks (2022-07)
Ataullah, Ali; Le, Hang; Wang, Zilong and Wood, Geoffrey
International Review of Financial Analysis, 82, Article 102203

Institutional Investor Heterogeneity and Corporate Response to the Covid‐19 Pandemic (2022)
Ataullah, Ali; Le, Hang and Wood, Geoffrey
British Journal of Management, 33(2) (pp. 634-656)

Residual Government Ownership in Public-Private Partnership Projects (2021)
Mansaray, Alhassan; Coleman, Simeon; Ataullah, Ali and Sirichand, Kavita
Journal of Government and Economics, 4, Article 100018

Optimistic Disclosure Tone and Conservative Debt Policy (2018-12-25)
Ataullah, Ali; Vivian, Andrew and Xu, Bin
Abacus, 54(4) (pp. 445-484)

Time-varying managerial overconfidence and corporate debt maturity structure (2018)
Ataullah, Ali; Vivian, Andrew and Xu, Bin
The European Journal of Finance, 24(2) (pp. 157-181)

Employee Productivity, Employment Growth, and the Cross-Border Acquisitions by Emerging Market Firms (2014-11-21)
Ataullah, Ali; Le, Hang and Sahota, Amandeep S.
Human Resource Management, 53(6) (pp. 987-1004)

Insider Trading and Financing Constraints (2014-10-16)
Ataullah, Ali; Goergen, Marc and Le, Hang
Financial Review, 49(4) (pp. 685-712)

Corporate Diversification, Information Asymmetry and Insider Trading (2012)
Ataullah, Ali; Davidson, Ian; Le, Hang and Wood, Geoffrey
British Journal of Management, 25(2) (pp. 228-251)

A modified Corrado test for assessing abnormal security returns (2011)
Ataullah, Ali; Song, Xiaojing and Tippett, Mark
The European Journal of Finance, 17(7) (pp. 589-601)

Large Shareholders, the Board of Directors and the Allocation of Cash Proceeds from Corporate Asset Sell-offs (2010)
Ataullah, Ali; Davidson, Ian and Le, Hang
European Financial Management, 16(2) (pp. 271-295)

A wave function for stock market returns (2009)
Ataullah, Ali; Davidson, Ian and Tippett, Mark
Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 388(4) (pp. 455-461)

Non‐linear equity valuation (2009)
Ataullah, Ali; Rhys, Huw and Tippett, Mark
Accounting and Business Research, 39(1) (pp. 57-73)

Equity prices as a simple harmonic oscillator with noise (2007)
Ataullah, Ali and Tippett, Mark
Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 382(2) (pp. 557-564)

The Distributional Properties of the Debt to Equity Ratio: Some Implications for Empirical Research (2007)
Ataullah, Ali; Higson, Andrew and Tippett, Mark
Abacus, 43(2) (pp. 111-135)

Economic reforms and bank efficiency in developing countries: the case of the Indian banking industry (2006)
Ataullah, Ali and Le, Hang
Applied Financial Economics, 16(9) (pp. 653-663)

Real (adaptation) options and the valuation of equity: some empirical evidence (2006)
Ataullah, Ali; Higson, Andrew and Tippett, Mark
Abacus, 42(2) (pp. 236-265)

Financial liberalization and bank efficiency: a comparative analysis of India and Pakistan (2004)
Ataullah, Ali; Cockerill, Tony and Le, Hang
Applied Economics, 36(17) (pp. 1915-1924)

Financial repression and liability of foreignness in developing countries (2004)
Ataullah, Ali and Le, Hang
Applied Economics Letters, 11(9) (pp. 545-549)