Staff profile

Alireza is a seasoned educator and researcher who joined Durham University Business School in January 2023.

Prior to joining Durham, Alireza worked as an Assistant Professor in Finance at Coventry University where he taught a variety of core financial modules. He holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce, an MBA in finance, and a PhD in Economics, which he completed in January 2016. Alireza has also completed a postgraduate certificate in academic practice from Lancaster University, and has been actively involved in several activities, including the development of scholarly outputs, funding/grant applications, PGR supervision, research leadership, and mentoring.

He has also had the opportunity to participate in an exchange scholarship program at Harvard University in 2019. With a publication record of several research articles in reputed peer-reviewed journals, Alireza's research focuses on understanding the market manifestations of reactions to “Black Swan events”. His outputs are largely on asset pricing, exchange rate determination, risk management, Islamic finance, and capital financial markets.

Chapter in book

• Ariff, M., Zarei, A., & Bhatti, M. (2019). Pricing anomaly: Tale of two similar credit-rated bonds with different yields. In The Growth of Islamic Finance and Banking (233-253). Routledge
• Ariff, M., & Zarei, A. (2018). Exchange rate instability: relative volatility, risk and adjustment speed. In Research Handbook of Investing in the Triple Bottom Line (75-92). Edward Elgar Publishing

Journal Article

• Sifat, I., Zarei, A., & Ah Mand, A. (2023). Revisiting WTI–Brent spread and its drivers. Energy Strategy Reviews, 50, Article 101206. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esr.2023.101206
• Leong, K., Ariff, M., Zarei, A., & Bhatti, M. (2022). Bank stock valuation theories: do they explain prices based on theories?. International Journal of Managerial Finance,
• Sifat, I., Zarei, A., Hosseini, S., & Bouri, E. (2022). Interbank liquidity risk transmission to large emerging markets in crisis periods. International Review of Financial Analysis, 82, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.irfa.2022.102200
• Zarei, A., Ariff, M., & Bhatti, M. (2019). The impact of exchange rates on stock market returns: new evidence from seven free-floating currencies. European Journal of Finance, 25(14), 1277-1288. https://doi.org/10.1080/1351847x.2019.1589550
• Ariff, M., & Zarei, A. (2018). Sustainable Development and Currency Exchange Rate Behavior. Asian Economic Papers, 17(3), 148-173
• Ariff, M., & Zarei, A. (2016). Exchange Rate Behavior of Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. Open Economies Review, 27(2), 341-357. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11079-015-9372-x