Ali Uppal

Ali Uppal

Assistant Professor of Finance

Imperial College Business School

Biography

I am an Assistant Professor of Finance at Imperial College Business School. I am a macroeconomist with interests in monetary economics, financial intermediation, and macrofinance. My research focuses on the interactions between monetary policy and financial stability.

Education

  • PhD in Economics, 2019 - 2024

    University of California San Diego

  • MA in International and Development Economics, 2015 - 2016

    Yale University

  • BSc in Economics, 2009 - 2012

    London School of Economics

Working Papers

Does the FOMC Cycle Still Drive Stock Returns? New Evidence from the US, UK, and Japan

Cieslak et al. (2019) document that between 1994 and 2016, the US equity premium is earned entirely in even weeks of the Federal Open Market Committee cycle, and these even weeks also drive returns internationally. Updating their data, I show this result does not hold out-of-sample, weakening as early as 2004. Their proposed mechanism—informal leaks following biweekly board meetings—ceases after 2004, as meetings are no longer biweekly. Before 2004, outliers appear to drive the result. Finally, I construct central bank cycles for the UK and Japan and show that, when accounting for pre-announcement effects, the international result disappears.

Teaching

Topics in Macroeconomics, UC San Diego

Teaching Assistant: 2023

Stabilization Economics, UC San Diego

Teaching Assistant: 2022

Intermediate Macroeconomics, UC San Diego

Teaching Assistant: 2020, 2021, 2022

Introduction to Microeconomics, UC San Diego

Teaching Assistant: 2021

Financial Stability Economics, Yale University

Guest Lecturer: 2016