Andrea Buffa

Andrea Buffa is an Assistant Professor of Finance at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado Boulder. Prior to joining CU Boulder, he served as an Assistant Professor of Finance at Boston University. Buffa holds a Ph.D. in Finance from the London Business School and an M.Sc. in Finance and Economics from the London School of Economics.

His research focuses on several key areas within finance:

• Asset pricing with frictions
• Financial institutions and institutional asset management
• Contract theory applications in finance
• Information economics and its implications for markets
• ESG funds and sustainable investing
• Volatility disagreement and asset pricing

Buffa's research on asset management contracts and their impact on asset prices has garnered significant attention from major financial publications including The Economist, Financial Times, and Bloomberg Businessweek. His work spans theoretical models and empirical analyses examining how financial institutions operate within market structures and how contractual arrangements affect market outcomes.

His recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on understanding the mechanics of fund management, ESG investing, and the implications of investor disagreement on market prices. Buffa has developed innovative measures for fund activeness and explored how different types of ESG funds operate in the marketplace.

Buffa has received numerous prestigious awards for his research:

• 2013 Best Young Researcher Award by the Multinational Finance Society
• 2015 SFS Cavalcade Award for the Best Paper in Asset Pricing
• KRX Best Paper Award at the Asia-Pacific Association of Derivatives Conference (2024)
• Best Paper Award in Investments at the FMA Annual Meeting (2024)
• Best Paper Award at the Spring Finance Workshop (2025)
• Best Paper Award at the Colorado Finance Summit (2019)

As a faculty member, Buffa contributes to the academic community through his membership in the Finance Theory Group (FTG), Macro Finance Society (MFS), and the Four Corners Center for Research on Index Investments. He is also the co-founder of the Italian Financial Economists Association (IFEA) and co-organizer of the Colorado Finance Summit.