About
David Ardia is a Full Professor in the Department of Decision Sciences at HEC Montréal, promoted to this position on June 1, 2025. Previously, he served as an Associate Professor from June 2020 to May 2025. He holds the Research Professorship in Sentometry and is a member of the Study and Research Group on Decision Analysis (GERAD) and the International Statistical Institute. Ardia is also an elected member of the ISI Louis Bachelier Fellow and serves as Associate Editor for both the International Journal of Forecasting and the Journal of Statistical Software.
His educational background includes a Ph.D. in Financial Econometrics from the University of Fribourg, a Master of Applied Sciences in Quantitative Finance from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich and University of Zurich, and a Master of Science in Financial Engineering from the University of Neuchâtel.
Ardia's research focuses on the intersection of quantitative finance, machine learning, and natural language processing, with particular emphasis on sentometrics (textual sentiment analysis in finance), risk management, and climate finance. His work spans financial econometrics, volatility modeling, and the application of advanced statistical methods to asset allocation and economic forecasting. He has pioneered methods for analyzing climate change concerns in financial markets and has made significant contributions to understanding green versus brown stock performance.
His publication record shows a strong trajectory in high-impact finance and statistics journals, with recent work examining Robinhood trading patterns, cryptocurrency markets, climate finance, and innovative methodological approaches to financial time series analysis. His research demonstrates increasing focus on sustainability applications within quantitative finance.
- Prix de la qualité des données ouvertes 2024 (Canadian Open Data Community)
- Prix de recherche pour les professeures et professeurs agrégés (HEC Montréal, 2024)
- Prix pour l'excellence en pédagogie (HEC Montréal, 2022)
- Best Paper Award at the 38th International Conference of the French Finance Association
- Best Paper Award 2018-2019 from International Journal of Forecasting
- eRum 2020 COVID19 contest winner for the COVID-19 Data Hub
Ardia actively supervises numerous graduate students, with over 70 mentorship activities documented in the past five years, spanning both thesis supervision and supervised projects. His research is supported by collaborations with institutions including IVADO, the R Consortium, and the University of Lugano. He co-created the influential COVID-19 Data Hub platform, which integrates epidemiological data with policy measures and spatial databases to analyze pandemic impacts.
His research group focuses on developing computational tools for financial analysis, particularly through R packages like MSGARCH for Markov-switching GARCH models and sentometrics for textual sentiment analysis. This work bridges academic research with practical applications in financial institutions and policy analysis.
