Strategic Support for Financial Research: Inside the Mitsui Center at Michigan Ross
The Mitsui Life Financial Research Center at Michigan Ross was founded in 1990 with generous support from the Mitsui Life Insurance Co., a Japanese company that has been renamed Taiju Life Insurance Co. The Mitsui Center has one distinct mission: to support research in financial markets. It achieves this by funding important research projects and hosting weekly seminars and annual symposia that connect Michigan Ross finance scholars with top researchers worldwide.
“The Mitsui Center is a purely research-oriented center,” said M.P. Narayanan, faculty director of the Mitsui Center and professor of finance. “For that reason, the center works closely with the finance area of Michigan Ross and hosts events and provides funding opportunities for faculty and students whose research is related to finance.”
Supporting research through events for faculty and students
The Mitsui Center operates with a team of three members. Narayanan and Gabriella Ring, program coordinator, manage the center’s day-to-day activities at Michigan Ross. Because of its close ties to Taiju Life Insurance Co., the center also supports research activities in Japan. Takaaki Wakasugi, co-director of the Mitsui Center, has overseen this work since the center’s founding.
The center’s biggest annual initiative is the Mitsui Life Symposium at Michigan Ross. This event promotes research by bringing together financial scholars across the country for rigorous presentations and discussions. This year’s event took place from June 11-13 and focused on new frontiers in financial intermediation. At the end of each year, the center hosts a second, virtual Mitsui Life Symposium for a Japanese audience, which addresses financial topics specific to Japan.
The Mitsui Center also organizes two seminar series during the academic year. The Mitsui Finance Seminar Series brings notable financial scholars from around the world to share their ideas and knowledge with Ross students and faculty, which helps advance research and inspire collaboration within the global finance community. The Mitsui Finance Brown Bag Series offers a more informal setting for faculty and students to present their early work and get peer feedback. Although these events mainly attract finance faculty and PhD students, any U-M faculty and students from related disciplines are welcome to attend.
Supporting faculty excellence and promoting financial research
The Mitsui Center offers financial assistance to Michigan Ross faculty and researchers. For example, Mitsui provides funding for faculty to purchase data from other researchers or companies that can help them with their own research. Amongst several awards that Mitsui funds, the center sponsors the Nippon Telephone and Telegraph Fellowship Award, which allows a finance faculty member to take a 50% reduction in teaching to focus on their research.
“By providing various types of financial support, we enable Ross to make competitive offers to attract and retain high-quality finance faculty,” said Narayanan. “If someone’s research has connections to finance or would be of interest to finance scholars, we’ll be happy to consider supporting it.”
