Faculty Profile : Sandy Klasa

Contact Information

• 520.621.8761 office
• 520.621.1261 fax
• sklasa@eller.arizona.edu
• McClelland Hall 315G

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Associate professor Sandy Klasa received his Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Oregon in 2002 and joined the Finance Department at the University of Arizona that same year. In 2009, Professor Klasa received tenure and appointment to associate professor and was awarded the Brun Family Foundation Fellowship at the Eller College of Management.

Professor Klasa’s research focuses on the effects of industrial organization on corporate financial policy decisions, and also on mergers and acquisitions and corporate governance issues. His research has been published in most of the leading scholarly journals in the field of finance.

In two of his papers that were recently published in the Journal of Financial Economics, Professor Klasa and his co-authors examine the effects of industry competition and of labor unions on corporate cash holdings. The first paper shows that firms in more oligopolistic industries have greater cash holdings so that they can protect themselves from predatory behavior on the part of their rivals. The second paper finds that firms that are more unionized strategically hold smaller cash reserves to gain bargaining advantages over labor unions and shelter corporate income from their demands.

In another paper, which was the lead article in the July 2009 issue of the Journal of Financial Economics, Professor Klasa and his co-authors study mergers and acquisitions to provide evidence on the controversial issue of whether firms attempt to keep their leverage ratios at target levels. They find that deviations from these targets affect how bidders choose to finance acquisitions and how they adjust their capital structure following an acquisition. These findings suggest that firms are indeed concerned with maintaining their debt close to target levels.

Professor Klasa currently teaches New Venture Finance (FIN 536) to students in Eller’s Masters of Business Administration and Masters in Finance programs and teaches Finance for New Ventures (FIN 480) to students in Eller’s top-ranked undergraduate entrepreneurship program. He also teaches a doctoral class in corporate finance (FIN 620A). Professor Klasa has been the recipient of teaching awards at the Universities of Arizona and Oregon, most recently being awarded the 2008-2009 Scrivner Teaching Award by the UA foundation.