Nick Bodie is a first-year PhD student in finance at the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin. He received his B.S. in finance, with a minor in security and risk analysis, from Penn State's Smeal College of Business in 2025, where he wrote his honors thesis on machine-learning methods for detecting shell companies. Before starting his PhD, he worked in anti-money laundering (AML) compliance as a financial crime investigator.
Nick plans to continue exploring financial crime prevention in his future research. He hopes to use both theoretical modeling and empirical data to inspire more effective policies against illicit financial activity. He is also interested in macrofinance, particularly wealth inequality and heterogeneous-agent models.
Outside of research, Nick is a lifelong musician with expertise in marching percussion and music education. Alongside his academic work, he intends to continue teaching as an instructor for high school and collegiate marching ensembles.
Research Interests
Financial Crime
Money laundering detection and measurement
AML enforcement and regulation
Strategic models of detection and evasion
Macrofinance
Wealth inequality
Heterogeneous-agent models
Geoeconomics
Dollar dominance and the international monetary system
Disaster risk and signals
Current Course Schedule (Fall 2026)
37185MACROECONOMICS I(Instructor: Chris Boehm)
37170MICROECONOMICS I(Instructor: Max Stinchcombe)
37160MATH FOR ECONOMISTS*(Instructor: Max Stinchcombe)