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Muhammad Cheema image 2021Senior Lecturer in Finance
MSc (Strathclyde), PhD (Lincoln)

Tel +64 3 479 8146Email muhammad.cheema@otago.ac.nz
Office OBS 5.14

Dr Cheema joined the University of Otago in February 2021 as a Senior Lecturer in Finance. Previously, he held academic positions at the University of Waikato New Zealand, KIMEP University Kazakhstan, Curtin University Malaysia, and Lincoln University New Zealand. Dr Cheema was named an Erskine Fellow by the University of Canterbury New Zealand in November 2021.

Dr Cheema’s teaching and research interests are investments, behavioural finance, empirical asset pricing, and energy finance. He teaches FINC302 Applied Investments and FINC444 Behavioural Finance courses. Dr Cheema has published 21 refereed articles in leading international journals, 17 of which (15 as lead author) are in journals ranked as A or A* by the Australian Business Deans Council. He has presented his research at major international conferences and has received multiple best papers awards. These include the 2022 MBIE (Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment) Best Paper Award for Capital Markets and the 2019 CFA Society’s Best Paper Award, both at New Zealand Finance Colloquium.

Dr Cheema is ranked in the top 10% of Authors on SSRN .com (Social Science Research Network) by all-time downloads. He has supervised two PhD students to completion and is currently supervising three PhD students. He has refereed for more than 35 different journals and has examined 10 PhD dissertations.

Dr Cheema’s work has been featured several times in the financial press, at economic think tanks, and at associations of investment professionals, including the CFA Society, VoxEU, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Wirtschaftswoche, and Morningstar.

Dr Cheema serves as the Director of the “BNZ Bloomberg Markets Lab” at the University of Otago, where he assists faculty and students who want to use the Bloomberg Professional Service. He is also the New Zealand Coordinator of the InSPiR2eS Global Pitching Research Competition (IGPRC) Previously, he served as Associate Dean of Research and Development of the Faculty of Business and Humanities at Curtin University Malaysia. He also organized the 2021 New Zealand Finance Colloquium at the University of Waikato, Tauranga, and led the awards committee for the 2020 INFINZ Best PhD , Masters, and Honours theses.

Dr Cheema keeps the community and the finance industry informed about important financial issues through his public lectures. His most recent public lectures were “Retirement Planning”, “How to Protect Yourself from Financial Scams”, “The COVID-19 Pandemic and Safe Haven Assets,” and “The Importance of Finance in Our Daily Life”.

Research interests

  • Investments
  • Behavioural Finance
  • Empirical Asset Pricing
  • Energy Finance

Teaching

Current teaching

Supervision

Dr Cheema is currently supervising three PhD and four MFinc students. He is available to supervise PhD students in investments, behavioural finance, empirical asset pricing, and energy finance.

Publications

Cheema, M. A., Chiah, M., & Zhong, A. (2023). Corporate payouts in Australia. Pacific-Basin Finance Journal. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1016/j.pacfin.2023.101990

Cheema, M. (2023, September). Investor sentiment dynamics and the MAX Effect. Verbal presentation at the International Conference in Finance, Banking and Accounting (ICFBA), Montpellier, France.

Cheema, M. A., Faff, R., & Szulczyk, K. R. (2022). The 2008 global financial crisis and COVID-19 pandemic: How safe are the safe haven assets? International Review of Financial Analysis, 83, 102316. doi: 10.1016/j.irfa.2022.102316

Cheema, M. A., Chiah, M., & Man, Y. (2022). Overnight returns, daytime reversals, and future stock returns: Is China different? Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, 74, 101809. doi: 10.1016/j.pacfin.2022.101809

Szulczyk, K. R., Cheema, M. A., & Ziaei, S. M. (2022). The economic feasibility of microalga to produce commercial biodiesel and reduce carbon dioxide emissions in Malaysia. Algal Research, 68, 102871. doi: 10.1016/j.algal.2022.102871

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