Kevin Murphy

Professor of Business, Economics and Law
Last Updated: September 29, 2023

Kevin Murphy is a nationally known expert on executive compensation. He teaches Corporate Finance and Compensation, Incentives and Governance in the USC Marshall School of Business, where he was named chair of the department of finance and business economics and holds the E. Morgan Stanley Chair in Business Administration.

Murphy helped the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission formulate disclosure rules for top management pay. His study examining the salary trends of top executives, published in 2000, set a benchmark in finance research. He has provided commentary on corporate pay reform to The New York TimesLos Angeles Times and Boston Globe, among other media.

Murphy has written several Harvard teaching cases and is an associate editor of the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Accounting and Economics, Managerial and Decision Economics, and the Journal of Corporate Finance. Prior to joining USC in 1995, he was on the faculty at the Harvard Business School and the University of Rochester’s Simon School of Business.

A selection of papers can be downloaded from Kevin Murphy’s Author Page at the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) Electronic Library or from Kevin Murphy’s Personal Home Page.