Andrew W. Lo

Faculty

Andrew W. Lo

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About

Affiliated MIT Sloan Group

MIT Department

Andrew W. Lo is the Charles E. and Susan T. Harris Professor, a Professor of Finance, and the Director of the Laboratory for Financial Engineering at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Lo's current research spans four areas: evolutionary models of investor behavior and adaptive markets, artificial intelligence and financial technology, healthcare finance, and impact investing. Recent projects include: an evolutionary explanation for bias and discrimination and how to reduce their effects; a new analytical framework for measuring the impact of impact investing; the potential for large language models to provide trustworthy financial advice to retail investors; new statistical tools for predicting clinical trial outcomes, incorporating patient preferences into the drug approval process; and accelerating innovation in deep tech via novel business, financing, and payment models.

Lo has published extensively in academic journals (see http://alo.mit.edu) and his most recent book is The Adaptive Markets Hypothesis: An Evolutionary Approach to Understanding Financial System Dynamics.  His awards include Batterymarch, Guggenheim, and Sloan Fellowships; the Paul A. Samuelson Award; the Eugene Fama Prize; the IAFE-SunGard Financial Engineer of the Year; the Global Association of Risk Professionals Risk Manager of the Year; the Harry M. Markowitz Award; the Managed Futures Pinnacle Achievement Award; one of TIME’s “100 most influential people in the world”; and awards for teaching excellence from both Wharton and MIT. His book Adaptive Markets: Financial Evolution at the Speed of Thought has also received a number of awards. He is a Fellow of the American Finance Association, Academia Sinica, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Econometric Society, and the Society of Financial Econometrics.Lo is also a principal investigator at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, an external faculty member of the Santa Fe Institute, and a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He has co-founded several asset management and biotech companies, and sits on the boards of several for-profit and non-profit public and private healthcare organizations.Lo holds a BA in economics from Yale University and an AM and PhD in economics from Harvard University.

Honors

JOIM honors Kritzman and Lo

February 20, 2024

Lo wins 2021 digital teaching award

June 3, 2021

GARP honors Lo as Risk Manager of the Year

Lo wins Jamieson Prize

Lo’s book wins PROSE Award

Pinnacle Achievement Award Given to Lo

Markowitz Award given to Lo

Publications

"Estimating Correlations Between Clinical Trial Outcomes Using Generalised Estimating Equations."

Dai, Yuehao, Andrew W. Lo, Manish Singh, Qingyang Xu, and Ruixun Zhang. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics. Forthcoming.

"Optimal Financing Design for Drug Development Firms."

Thakor, Richard T. and Andrew W. Lo. Research Policy. Forthcoming. SSRN Preprint.

"Paying off the Competition: Contracting, Market Power, and Innovation Incentives."

Li, Xuelin, Andrew W. Lo, and Richard Thakor. Review of Finance. Forthcoming. SSRN Preprint.

"Use of Bayesian Decision Analysis in the Design of Patient-Centered Clinical Trials for Kidney Failure Devices."

Ben Chaouch, Zied, Qingyang Xu, ... and Andrew W. Lo et al. Computers in Biology and Medicine Vol. 198, No. Part B (2025): 111150.

"Performance Attribution for Portfolio Constraints."

Lo, Andrew W., and Ruixun Zhang. Management Science Vol. 71, No. 9 (2025): 7537-7559. SSRN Preprint.

"The Evolution of Discrimination Under Finite Memory Constraints."

Lo, Andrew W., Ruixun Zhang, and Chaoyi Zhao. Scientific Reports Vol. 15, (2025): 31774.

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Additions to the MIT Sloan 2025 – 2026 course list include Intensive Hands-On Deep Learning, AI and Money, and The Arrhythmia of Finance.

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MIT Sloan Faculty Share Latest Insights at Reunion 2025

Faculty presented the latest insights from their work in corporate leadership, precision medicine, climate policy, personal finance, and deep tech during MIT Sloan Reunion 2025.

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Media Highlights

Press Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation

The risk, reward, and asset allocation of nonprofit endowment funds

Professor Andrew W. Lo, senior lecturer Egor Matveyev, and co-author wrote: "In our paper, we compile the first comprehensive dataset covering the full universe of U.S. nonprofit endowments. Using IRS Form 990 filings from 2008 to 2020, we study nearly 375,000 nonprofit organizations, including about 40,000 that maintain endowment assets. We combine detailed investment disclosures on Schedule D with governance, compensation, and financial information on the main form to examine how endowment strategy and performance relate to organizational structures and oversight practices."

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Press Fount Media

Is AI recreating Buffett's 'God Hand?' Hedge funds are increasingly using it.

Professor Andrew W. Lo said he believes that "perhaps within five years, AI will be able to replicate the investment style of renowned investor Warren Buffett." He noted that if AI can further develop capabilities similar to human intuition, the accuracy of medium and long-term inferences will be greatly improved. He also warned that the widespread use of AI could introduce new vulnerabilities. "If human intervention becomes difficult, the market could experience a rapid, flash crash-like decline, triggering a chain reaction of financial crises."

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This online program from the MIT Sloan School of Management and the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) challenges common misconceptions surrounding AI and will equip and encourage you to embrace AI as part of a transformative toolkit. With a focus on the organizational and managerial implications of these technologies, rather than on their technical aspects, you’ll leave this course armed with the knowledge and confidence you need to pioneer its successful integration in business.

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