Ian Dew-Becker

Ian Dew-Becker serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and as a Senior Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. His academic work centers on theoretical and empirical asset pricing and macroeconomics, with particular emphasis on uncertainty, skewness, and tail risk in economic systems. He received his PhD in economics from Harvard University and has held prior positions at Northwestern University, Duke University, and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

His educational background includes:

• PhD in Economics, Harvard University

Dew-Becker's research explores how agents form beliefs about economic fundamentals and how these beliefs translate into asset prices and macroeconomic outcomes. He investigates the dynamics of uncertainty and skewness across business cycles, develops novel measures using options data, and examines how production networks propagate economic shocks. His work demonstrates that firm-level uncertainty does not significantly forecast aggregate output, challenging existing models, while revealing how interconnectedness can reduce sensitivity to small shocks while amplifying vulnerability to large ones. Recent studies focus on real-time skewness measurement and tail risk transmission through input-output structures.

Analysis of his publication record shows a consistent focus on risk measurement and pricing across financial and macroeconomic domains. Collaborating frequently with Stefano Giglio, he has pioneered methodologies using options data to construct cross-sectional uncertainty indices and measure conditional skewness. His research demonstrates that while exchange-traded options earn negative alphas implying rising risk aversion during downturns, synthetic options show constant risk aversion, suggesting intermediary frictions drive pricing anomalies. Key contributions include establishing empirical regularities about macro skewness and demonstrating how production networks generate left-skewed economic activity.

No scientific awards were mentioned in the available information.

Information regarding graduate student advising, research grants, or specific funding sources was not provided in the source materials. Dew-Becker teaches the Investments course at Chicago Booth during Autumn quarters but no details about mentored students or grant-supported projects are available.

Dr. Dew-Becker actively collaborates with researchers across institutions including Stefano Giglio (Yale University), Andrea Vedolin (London School of Economics), and Bryan Kelly (Yale University), forming a network focused on financial economics and macro-finance linkages. His work bridges theoretical modeling with empirical analysis of market data, particularly options markets, to address fundamental questions about risk and uncertainty in economic systems.