Alain Philippe Fortin: Helping economics students develop their analytical skills

Since July 1, the Department of Economics at Université de Montréal has a new lecturer: Alain-Philippe Fortin. Starting in the fall semester, he will teach two graduate courses previously taught by professor René Garcia: Financial Economics and Special Topics in Money, Banking and Markets.

Fortin’s father is an actuary and his mother an IT manager. He graduated from HEC Montréal with an MBA in 2015 and a master’s degree in financial economics in 2017. The following year, he began his doctoral studies in the Swiss Finance Institute program at the University of Geneva.

“I was attracted by the quality of the program there, and as I was interested in professor Olivier Scaillet’s work, I contacted him directly,” he recalled. “I was among the cohort of nine students selected in 2018 for the Swiss Finance Institute’s Ph.D. program in finance.”

Fortin’s main area of interest is financial econometrics and the empirical pricing of financial assets. “Among other things, my research aims to develop new statistical methods for analyzing high-dimensional factor models,” he explained.

Six years after leaving for Geneva, Fortin is back in Montreal and ready to take on the challenge of combining teaching and research, including projects with his departmental colleagues Benoit Perron and Marine Carrasco.

“In addition to my research projects, my goal will be to help my students develop their analytical skills and abilities, and to guide them in the realization of innovative projects,” Fortin said.