Howdy!  This is Osman Nal and I am a clinical assistant professor of economics and finance at William & Mary.  I joined the Mason School of Business in the Summer of 2021.  My primary duty at my current position at W&M is teaching, service and research.  

At the graduate level I teach microeconomics, macroeconomics and international finance (BUAD 5723, 5941, 5943, 5945, 6951) throughout the year.  At the undergraduate level I primarily teach corporate finance (BUAD 323) mostly in the Fall semesters.   

For my service, I am involved in various school committees such as the Mason AI task force and athletic academic advising (3AC) committee.  I am also a pre-major advisor for our freshmen showing interest in majoring in finance.  I love interacting with my students through lively discussions in a face-to-face or online classroom environment.  

My current research agenda includes three (3) items:

1. Macroeconomics:  I study capital accumulation and total factor productivity for 100+ countries around the world. 

2. Behavioral Finance:  I study behavioral biases and anomalies affect personal finances for individuals and balance sheets for institutional investors. 

3. Machine Learning in Finance: I apply Markov processes and Gaussian mixture models to study regime changes in commercial banks using call reports.  

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Prior work:

I previously worked at schools and colleges in Texas.  Most recently, I was an assistant professor at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas.  This is a historical school which mostly serves under-represented students from various minorities.  In that role, I helped establish the Financial Analysis master's program there.  I basically recruited students, set up course contents, and even periodically met with companies to invite them to meet with our students.  

Before that, I was an assistant professor at North American University (NAU) in Houston, and Texas Southern University (TSU), a historically black college, again in Houston, Texas.  I have tremendously enjoyed my time in all schools that I worked.  

A funny fact is that all three of these schools in Texas seem to have been struggling financially during my time there.  I suspect this is a common feature in higher education.  I conjecture that schools will consolidate in the long run to benefit from economies of scale.  

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Educational background:

In terms of educational credential, I earned my Ph.D. degree in economics from Rice University in 2008 with specialization in financial economics.  My doctoral dissertation focuses on the market discipline mechanism as a channel for curbing bank risk taking and its potential destabilizing effects.  For this I hypothesize the strategic interactions of actors in financial markets including a careful study of the objective function of banks and depositors. 

Prior to that I studied math as an undergraduate major at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey.  I have always loved mathematics as the best description of reality.  That's why I enjoy helping gifted and talented high school students in contest math.

You can contact me by e-mail:  osman.nal@mason.wm.edu

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Personal background:

Born to a migrant Turkish family, I grew up in Paris, France.  My father was somewhat different, a sufi, with incredible foresight while my mother was a typical Turkish mom.  Growing up in France had a lasting impact in terms of my personality and who I am today.  Something that I can write a book about later on in life I find the time.

At the age of 10, my father sent me, my mom and brother back to to Turkey where I completed my secondary education.  I literally grew up in streets (!) when not in school, playing from sunrise to sunset and I loved it!  As it would get dark, the moms would go out on the streets and shout their children's names to bring them back home.  It was so much fun to play tag, soccer, racing, stick games, mud games, marbles, and even collection of rock games!  I hope we give opportunities to our children to have as much fun with each other safely in the outdoors and not in front of an iPad screen.

My time in the U.S. as a doctoral student and then as an academic has been so fast paced.  Corporate America is tough and you are always staying productive and hard at work.  Being around like-minded friends and colleagues is like a breeze in a challenging environment.  I learned so much from them and life has been so much more bearable thanks to their presence.     

Fast forward to today, I am married with two children.  I like reading articles (scholarly and Wikipedia), chatting with large language models (like ChatGPT and gemini), watching YouTube shorts, and learning new mathematical proofs.  

I feel like I have made so many mistakes in life that I don't want my children and students to have similar struggle.  But maybe they should!  It is not easy to explain things hypothetically.  Instead, my job is to be there for them when my children and students need me.