Soon Hyeok Choi
Assistant Professor
Soon Hyeok Choi
Assistant Professor
Education
BA, Bowdoin College; MPS, MA, Ph.D., Cornell University
Bio
Professor Soon Hyeok Choi is an Assistant Professor of Real Estate Finance at the Saunders College of Business in RIT. He is a real estate and financial economist.
Professor Choi's research interests lie at the intersection of real estate, finance, and AI/ML technology, where he addresses pressing challenges and explores emerging opportunities in these fields. His work focuses on the dynamics of price bubbles, particularly their empirical detection across diverse asset classes. Currently, he is developing a neural network framework to advance the asset price bubble technology introduced in his co-authored study with Robert Jarrow.
Housing affordability is another critical area of Professor Choi's research, where he examines the economic, social, and policy dimensions of making housing accessible to diverse populations. In a collaborative project with Adam Nowak, Patrick Smith, and Alexei Tchistyi, he investigates which groups of homebuyers are most susceptible to the winner's curse effects, including lower housing returns and higher mortgage default probabilities, in the U.S. housing market. Additionally, he explores potential disparities within the real estate brokerage industry and their impact on housing outcomes. His broader research agenda includes topics such as mortgage finance, accessible credit, and the interplay between climate risk and real estate markets.
Professor Choi also delves into the complexities of debt contracts and the valuation of contingent claims. In a collaboration with Robert Jarrow, Daniel Lebret, and Crocker Liu, he formalizes and prices co-tenancy clauses, which are common in retail contracts, using an option pricing framework. Building on this foundation, he is extending reduced-form credit risk models to investigate applications in climate risk and insurance, analyzing how environmental challenges affect financial systems and real asset valuations.
Finally, Professor Choi is deeply committed to integrating artificial intelligence and machine learning into his research on finance and real estate. These advanced tools are integral to his work on price bubble detection, housing market dynamics, banking, and climate risk modeling, enabling him to uncover patterns and insights that traditional methods might overlook.
Professor Choi holds a Ph.D., MA, MPS from Cornell University and AB from Bowdoin College
Select Scholarship
“Applying the Local Martingale Theory of Bubbles to Cryptocurrencies” (with Robert A. Jarrow), International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Finance, 2022, Vol. 25 No. 03 2250013 1-25.
“Pricing the Upside Potential to Downside Risk” (with Robert A. Jarrow, Daniel Lebret, Crocker H. Liu), Working Paper.
- Semifinalist for Best Paper Award, Financial Intermediation & Institutions, Financial Management Association 2023
- Best Practitioner Research Award (Non-residential), $2,500 sponsored by BOMA International, American Real Estate Society 2023
“Is the Current Bull Market A Bubble? An Empirical Investigation” (with Robert A. Jarrow), Working Paper.
“The Winner's Curse in Housing Markets” (with Adam Nowak, Patrick Smith, Alexei Tchistyi), Working Paper.
“Is Nifty Going Up Too Quickly? The Case of the Indian Stock Bubble” (with Robert A. Jarrow), Working Paper.
“Selling Houses as Minority Broker: Quantifying Diversity Discount”, Working Paper.
- Innovative Thinking Award - “Thinking Out of the Box”, $1,000 sponsored by Greenfield Advisors, American Real Estate Society 2024
“A Theory of Durable Asset Leasing” (with Crocker H. Liu), Working Paper.
Currently Teaching
In the News
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March 14, 2025
Federal lease cuts would only compound Rochester’s CRE office sector
Rochester Business Journal speaks to Soon Hyeok (Steve) Choi, assistant professor in the Department of Finance and Accounting, about the effects.
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November 12, 2024
New minor bridges gaps between property development and management
RIT’s new real estate in hospitality minor gives students the opportunity to connect real estate knowledge with hospitality management practices. Launched in fall 2023, this minor is designed to equip students with specialized skills for careers in both industries.
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June 3, 2024
2023-24 Saunders Faculty and Staff Go Above and Beyond
Saunders College of Business recognizes the accomplishments of its outstanding employees throughout the 2023-24 academic year.