Professor McConnell's primary teaching interests are financial markets, corporate finance, real estate finance, and banking. His current research interests are in the areas of corporate finance, corporate governance, securities markets, and financial derivatives.
He has published more than 100 articles in leading peer-reviewed finance, economics and management journals including the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Review of Financial Studies, the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Finance and others. His recent publications include: “Existing Methods Provide Unreliable Estimates of the Marginal Value of Cash,” Critical Finance Review, 2021, forthcoming (with J. T. Halford, V. Sibilkov and N. Zaiats), “The Effect of Short-Sale Restrictions on Corporate Managers,” Journal of Risk and Financial Management, 2023, Vol. 16, No. 11, pp. 486-496, (with B. Liu and A. Schrowang), “Guilty by Political Association: The Impact of Political Scandals on Connected Firms,” Journal of Law and Economics, 2023, forthcoming, (with A. Knill, B. Liu, and C. Seagraves).
He has been recognized for his scholarly contributions as the Distinguished Scholar of the Eastern Finance Association (2002) and as a Fellow of FMA (2007). He has won numerous teaching awards, including the Salgo-Noren Outstanding Teaching Award (1993, 1995, 2011, 2012 and 2018) and the Most Effective MSM Teacher Award (1992). He has received research support from the National Science Foundation, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Small Business Administration, the Center for the Study of Futures Markets, and the Catalyst Institute.
Professor McConnell has served on the board of directors of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis (1983-86), Harrington Financial Group, Inc. (1993-2000), and Harrington West Financial Group, Inc. (1999-2009). He has been a consultant to Goldman, Sachs & Co., Merrill Lynch Capital Markets, Inc., the Federal Home Loan Bank System, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., and numerous law firms, corporations, and government agencies. He is an associate editor of the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, the Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, and the Journal of Fixed Income.