Muhammad Kashif

Dr Muhammad Kashif is a Professor and Dean of the Management Sciences department at SZABIST (Karachi). He holds a PhD in Economics and Finance and an MSc. In Financial Economics (both from the University of Glasgow, UK) and an MBA in Finance. He has previously held positions at the University of Baluchistan, and Muhammad Ali Jinnah University (Karachi). He has over fifteen years of experience in teaching and research at the university level. His research interests lie in the areas of Asset Pricing, Portfolio Choice and Institutional Investors. His research profile includes a comprehensive empirical examination of several stock market anomalies and the performance of risk factor models on the UK and Pakistan stock markets. He has presented his research work at top-ranked universities, conferences, workshops and doctoral colloquiums like the University of Glasgow, University of Stirling, Bangor Business School, University of Bangor (Wales), University of Durham, University of Swansea (Wales), Scottish Doctoral Colloquium, Herriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Research Development Event, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, Edinburgh. He has published in elite finance journals like “The Journal of Banking and Finance” the International Journal of Finance and Economics and the International Journal of Emerging Markets. He has also provided reviewer ship services to the Journal of Banking and Finance and the Journal of Managerial Finance. He has successfully supervised many Mphil and PhD students in the area of finance and economics.

I am a Professor and Dean (Acting) of the Faculty of Management Sciences at Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Sciences and Technology (SZABIST) Karachi, Pakistan. SZABIST is a fully chartered Institute and is approved and recognized by the Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan, as a degree-awarding institution. I have completed my PhD in Finance /Economics, MSc. in financial economics (both from the University of Glasgow, UK) and MBA in Finance.

My academic career spans over 15 years. I have served at various universities in Pakistan including the University of Baluchistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah University (Karachi), and Sardar Bahadur Khan Women's University Quetta Pakistan.  During the last decade, I have been teaching both graduate and postgraduate-level courses and managing the administrative responsibilities of the Head of the Management sciences department for more than four years. I am presently the Dean (Acting) of all Six campuses of SZABIST in Pakistan. I have taught various courses including Introduction to Business Finance, Business Analysis and Forecasting, and Financial Management at the undergraduate level. Strategic Finance, Financial Markets and Institutions, Financial Risk Management, Business Research Methodologies, Financial Econometrics at postgraduate and Empirical asset pricing, Time series analysis, and Portfolio Management at PhD levels.

I have also performed several administrative tasks in the capacity of the editor, Journal of Independent Studies and research-Management Sciences, Social Sciences and Economics (JISR-MSSE) and In-charge Publications SZABIST, Cluster Head (Finance/Accounting/Banking)-Department of Management Sciences, Member Board of Faculty, Member Doctoral Committee, Member Academic Council at various Pakistani Universities. As a head and member of different academic committees, I have implemented innovative teaching methods (like a blend of case studies, research articles and/or, group discussions, lectures and activities in the computer lab if required). Also, I have been involved in the preparation of course outlines and ensuring the effective implementation of course objectives and outlines during the academic period. I also serve as a member and subject specialist of finance at ZABIST faculty hiring for all campuses.

My research interests lie in the areas of Asset Pricing, Portfolio Choice, and Investments. I have many research papers published to my credit in well-reputed peer-reviewed journals. I also have got the opportunity to present my research work at top-ranked universities, conferences, workshops and doctoral colloquiums like the University of Glasgow, University of Stirling, Bangor Business School, University of Bangor (Wales), University of Durham, University of Swansea (Wales), Scottish Doctoral Colloquium, Herriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Research Development Event, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, Edinburgh. I have publications in elite finance journals like “The Journal of Banking and Finance” to my credit. As a reviewer, I have been associated with the Journal of Banking and Finance and the Journal of Managerial Finance. I have successfully supervised many M.Phil. and PhD students in finance and economics.

PhD in Finance and Economics from Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow Scotland, UK.

My PhD Dissertation research explores the asset pricing implications of higher moments of return distributions on the UK stock market. We found that firms with negative coskewness (positive cokurtosis) yield higher premia relative to counterpart firms in a market populated by risk-averse, prudent and temperate investors. The identified risk factors outperform the covariance risk, size, value, and momentum factors in explaining the expected cross-sectional variation in asset returns. A coskewness and cokurtosis augmented CAPM performed better in explaining the cross-sectional variation in expected returns as compared to empirically-motivated assets pricing models. Motivated by the significance of coskewness and cokurtosis, my thesis also reports whether higher co-moments of asset returns can explain the profitability of several investment strategies; size, value, asset growth, accruals, dividend yield, net stock issue and momentum.

There is a series of papers on this theme that are published in highly reputed international peer-reviewed journals like the Journal of Banking and Finance. The research work in these papers revolve around higher moments, downside beta, liquidity preferences and asset returns and various stock anomalies including size, growth and accrual anomalies. In each of these papers, we attempt to identify the anomalies existing in the market which give arbitrage opportunities to prudent and rational investors.