Sumudu W Watugala

Assistant Professor

Department: Finance

Campus: Bloomington

Biography

Professor Sumudu Watugala is an assistant professor of finance at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. Her

Areas of Expertise

Financial intermediaries, investments, international finance, asset management, financial crisis, disasters, emerging markets, energy, and commodities

Academic Degrees

Ph.D. Financial Economics, University of Oxford
M.Eng. Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
B.S. Computer Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
B.S. Management Science (Finance), Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Professional Experience

Assistant Professor of Finance, Cornell University, SC Johnson College of Business, 2015-2022
Visiting Scholar, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, CA, 2024
Consultant, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Washington, DC, 2021-2025
Visiting Scholar, US Department of the Treasury, Washington, DC, 2016-2020
Associate / Quantitative Trader, Citadel Investment Group, L.L.C., Chicago and London, 2006-2009

Selected Publications

Kruttli, M. S., Tran, B. R., and Watugala, S. W. (2025). Pricing Poseidon: Extreme weather uncertainty and firm return dynamics. Journal of Finance, 80(2), 783-832. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jofi.13416
Kruttli, M. S., Monin, P. J., Petrasek, L. and Watugala, S. W. (2025). LTCM Redux? Hedge fund Treasury trading, funding fragility, and risk constraints. Journal of Financial Economics, 169, 104017. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304405X2500025X
Ivanov, I. T., Kruttli, M. S. and Watugala, S. W., (2024). Banking on carbon: Corporate lending and cap-and-trade policy. Review of Financial Studies, 37(5), 1640-1684. https://academic.oup.com/rfs/article/37/5/1640/7461198
Kruttli, M. S., Monin, P. J., and Watugala, S. W. (2022). The life of the counterparty: Shock propagation in hedge fund-prime broker credit networks. Journal of Financial Economics, 146(3), 965-988. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304405X2200054X
Albuquerque, R., Ramadorai, T., and Watugala, S. W. (2015). Trade credit and cross-country predictable firm returns. Journal of Financial Economics, 115(3), 592–613. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304405X14002293

Edited on September 18, 2025