Benjamin Carlston
6 Sugar Creek Ct.
Durham, NC 27713
H 801-380-3198
B benjamin.carlston@duke.edu
Education
Expected Ph.D., Economics, Duke University, Durham, NC.
2013 Dissertation: Essays in Financial Economics
Committee: Andrew Patton (advisor), George Tauchen, Tim Bollerslev, A. Ron Gallant
Certificate of College Teaching
2008 M.A., Economics, Duke University, Durham, NC.
2007 B.A., Economics, summa cum laude, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT.
Second Major: Mathematics
Areas of Specialization
Financial Economics, Econometrics, Asset Pricing
Teaching Experience
Spring 2013 Instructor, Corporate Finance, Duke University.
Sole instructor of an undergraduate course of 40 students. Students will be introduced to fundamental
firm and project evaluation and risk management. They will also carry out an independent research
assignment of their choice. Weekly current events will be integrated into assignments and course
discussions. Will prepare and hold lectures, create homework and exams, provide possible writing
topics, manage a Sakai site, and hold regular office hours.
Fall 2012 Instructional Assistant, Economics Center for Teaching, Duke University.
Prepare and develop lecture videos and slides as part of the development of an online econometrics
course for undergraduates.
Summer Instructor, Intermediate Microeconomics II, Duke University.
Term I 2011 Sole instructor of an undergraduate course of 10 students. Prepared and held lecture and discussion
sections, created and graded homework assignments and exams, managed a Blackboard site, and held
weekly office hours. Students were introduced to calculus based economic theory while building on
their previous graphical intuition.
Spring 2011 Instructor, Financial Markets and Investments, Duke University.
Sole instructor of an undergraduate and graduate level investment theory course of about 60 students.
Developed lectures including in class computational examples done in Matlab. Introduced students to
financial research by guiding them through the steps necessary to download their own financial data
and perform basic factor analysis. Created and graded weekly homework assignments and exams. Held
regular office hours and managed a Blackboard site.
Summer Instructor, Intermediate Microeconomics II, Duke University.
Term I, II Sole instructor of two undergraduate courses of about 15 students each. Prepared and held lecture
2010 and discussion sections, created and graded homework assignments and exams, managed a Blackboard
site, and held weekly office hours. Students were introduced to calculus based economic theory while
building on their previous graphical intuition.
Benjamin Carlston, Duke University, (801) 380-3198, benjamin.carlston@duke.edu
Teaching Experience (continued)
Spring 2009 Teaching Assistant, Microeconomic Analysis II, Duke University.
Ph.D. game theory course taught by Professor Curtis Taylor of approximately 50 students. Prepared
and led discussion section every other week and held weekly office hours. Assisted with preparation,
grading and proctoring of exams. Managed a Blackboard site.
Fall 2008 Teaching Assistant, Microeconomic Analysis I, Duke University.
Ph.D. microeconomic theory course taught by Professor Atila Abdulkadiroglu of approximately 50
students. Prepared and led weekly discussion section, graded weekly quizzes and exams, and developed
solutions for the final exam. Managed a Blackboard site.
2005-2007 Math Tutor, Brigham Young University Independent Study.
Sole math tutor responsible for assisting students of any offered math course with their questions in
person, over the phone, and via email. Created supplemental material for students of all mathematics
courses offered by BYU Independent Study ranging from pre-algebra math to college calculus to
reinforce online course content.
Research Experience
2009-Fall Research Assistant, Duke University.
2010 Assisted Professor Andrew Patton with coding of simulations of stock prices done in Matlab. Retrieved
and cleaned TAQ trades and quotes price data for select stocks. Developed SAS code to create
rectangular second-by-second price data from TAQ trades database.
2006-2007 Research Assistant, Brigham Young University.
Assisted Professor Rulon Pope with research in agricultural economics including GMM estimation in
GAUSS. Created a dataset on risk aversion for use in a campus presentation.
Working Papers
Examining the Commonality in Liquidity and Volatility Risk (Job Market Paper).
I estimate latent factor models of liquidity and volatility. Common liquidity and volatility factors are
extracted using multiple liquidity and volatility measures. Additionally, latent factors are extracted by
aggregating across both liquidity and volatility resulting in what I will call the common “uncertainty”
factors. I find that volatility and the common uncertainty risk are significantly priced in the cross-section
of expected returns while liquidity risk is not. My results suggest that while liquidity and volatility risk
factors may both proxy for an underlying uncertainty risk, which is significantly priced, there is an
additional significant risk unique to volatility.
Data-Based Evaluation of Integrated Variance Estimators.
I use a data-based technique to evaluate the accuracy of various high frequency estimators of integrated
volatility for stocks of differing size and liquidity. The results suggest that using a truncation estimator
of integrated volatility will provide the most accurate estimates of integrated volatility across a broad
spectrum of different stocks. Additionally, the truncation estimator performs best when using a
truncation level of three standard deviations.
Conferences Attended
2012
2011
2010
2010
2009
UNCW Economics Teaching Workshop
Triangle Econometrics Conference
Triangle Econometrics Conference
NBER-NSF Time Series Conference
Triangle Econometrics Conference
Benjamin Carlston, Duke University, (801) 380-3198, benjamin.carlston@duke.edu
Awards
2010, 2011 Graduate School Summer Research Fellowship, Duke University.
2007-present Full Tuition Scholarship, Duke University.
2007 Department of Economics Valedictorian, Brigham Young University.
2005-2007 Brigham Young Scholarship, Brigham Young University.
Full tuition merit-based scholarship.
Professional Affiliations
American Economic Association, Financial Management Association
Skills
Technical MATLAB, SAS, C++, Stata, LATEX, and Learning Management Systems Blackboard and Sakai
Language Proficient in Italian
References
Andrew Patton
Department of Economics
Duke University
213 Social Sciences Building, Box 90097
Durham, NC 27708-0097
B andrew.patton@duke.edu
T 919-660-1849
Thomas Nechyba
Department of Economics
Duke University
213 Social Sciences Building, Box 90097
Durham, NC 27708-0097
B nechyba@duke.edu
T 919-660-1826
H 919-302-7377
Curtis Taylor
Department of Economics
Duke University
213 Social Sciences Building, Box 90097
Durham, NC 27708-0097
B crtaylor@econ.duke.edu
T 919-660-1827
H 919-306-5605