Academy Fellow

Professor Terry Walter is a fractional Professor in the School of Accounting, Economics and Finance at The University of Wollongong Business School. His main role at the University of Wollongong is to provide research mentoring for academic staff and higher research degree students.

Professor Walter's first academic appointment was in 1973, subsequently he has had longstanding appointments at the University of Western Australia, UNSW, UTS and the University of Sydney. He was first appointed as a Professor at the University of Sydney in February 1988, and has since then held several senior administrative appointments including Director of Program, Head of School, Head of Division and Dean.

Professor Walter has had considerable success with ARC research funding (seven discovery grants, one infrastructure grant, two collaborative grants and one cooperative research centre). He has a substantial publication record (including papers published in some of the top finance and accounting journals; Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Abacus, Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Review of Accounting Studies) and has supervised more than 20 PhD students to completion. His research is in applied empirical research in a wide range of topic areas, including empirical tests of finance theory as it relates to the behaviour of capital markets; models of earnings management, accounting information and capital markets, market microstructure, takeovers and mergers and initial public offers, anomalies in empirical capital market evidence; behavioural finance, performance of mutual funds, executive remuneration and corporate governance. His work on executive remuneration, in which ten principles of design for executive remuneration contracts were outlined, was recently submitted to the APRA inquiry into Strengthening Prudential Requirements for Remuneration. This paper was part of a special issue of Abacus in which a wide range of academics were asked to write critiques of the paper. The clear majority of the responses were in favour of the ten principles. Other consulting jobs that demonstrate the practical implications of his research are as follows:

(i) Australian Securities Commission - Enhanced Disclosure (with Philip Brown and Stephen Taylor);

(ii) ASX Limited - The impact of deemed realisation of unrealised trading profits on the equities market: response to Taxation of Financial Arrangements Issues paper (with Peter Swan);

(iii) Sydney Futures Exchange Limited – An individual share price futures contract on Telstra (with Alex Frino);

(iv) ASX Limited – The capital gains tax obligations of subscribers to initial public offers (with Raymond da Silva Rosa); 

(v) Australian Securities and Investments Commission, independent expert’s opinion in the matter of Preston Resources Limited; and 

(vi) Independent Expert Report on the Frequency, Nature and Detail of Forecast Information Disclosed by Large ASX Listed Companies in the matter of Andrew Taylor and Telstra Corporation commissioned by Freehills.

For much of the past 20 years, Professor Walter was actively involved in the research of the Sirca Limited and the Capital Markets CRC Limited (now renamed RoZetta Research Institute following the merger of these two organisations). In his previous role of Chief Research Officer, as well as research roles within CIFR and the FIRN. Professor Walter, in conjunction with Professors Michael Aitken, Philip Brown and H. Y. Izan, was a member of the team that won three ARC Grants (a Discovery grant, an Infrastructure grant and a Collaborative grant with total funding between 1992 and 1996 of 0,000) that enabled the initial research work to understand the microstructure of the Australian SEATS trading system and the subsequent establishment of Sirca Limited.

Professor Walter has been a member or the last two REC Panels for Economics and Commerce in the ERA evaluations. He has also served on the Funds Management Committee and The Pooled Development Fund Registration Board where he has provided advice to the Federal Government on Australia’s venture capital and private equity industry.

1973 Tutor, University of Western Australia

1974 –1982 Lecturer, University of Western Australia

1982 – 1988 Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, University of New South Wales

1988 – 1991 Westpac Professor of Finance, University of Sydney

1991 – 2002 Professor of Accounting, University of Sydney

2000 – 2002 Acting Dean, Faculty of Economics, University of Sydney 

2002 – 2006 Professor of Finance and Head of the School of Banking and Finance, University of New South Wales

2006 – 2007 Professor of Finance and Head of the Business and Humanities Division, UNSW Asia

2007 Professor of Finance, University of New South Wales

2008 Professor of Finance, Macquarie University

2008 – 2013 Professor of Finance, University of Technology, Sydney

2013 – 2014, Chief Research Officer, Sirca Limited

2013 – 2016 Professor of Finance, University of Sydney

2013 – 2016, Chief Research Officer, CMCRC Limited

2017 – present Professorial Fellow, University of Wollongong

1. “A Direct Test of Rock's Model of the Pricing of Unseasoned Issues”, with Francis Koh, Journal of Financial Economics, December 1989, 251-272.

2. “IPO Underpricing Explanations: Implications from Investor Application and Allocation Schedules”, with Philip Lee and Stephen Taylor, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 1999, 425-444.

3. “The Role of ‘Other Information’ in Analysts’ Forecasts in Understanding Stock Return Volatility, with Yaowen Shan and Stephen Taylor, Review of Accounting Studies, 2014, 19, 1346-1392.

4. “Towards a Set of Design Principles for Executive Compensation Contracts”, with Yaowen Shan, Abacus, 2016, 52, 619-624.

5. “The Value-added Role of Industry Specialist Advisors in M&As”, with Michael Graham, Alfred Yawson and Huizhong Zhang, Journal of Banking and Finance, 2017, 81, 81-104.