G. William "Bill" Schwert is an American professor emeritus of business at University of Rochester Simon Business School. In 2009, he was named a Fellow of the Financial Management Association. In 2019 he was named a Fellow of the American Finance Association.
Schwert graduated from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut in 1971 and earned a PhD in financial economics from what is now the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 1975. Aside from one year as an assistant professor at Chicago, he spent his entire career at Rochester's Simon School before being granted professor emeritus status in 2021. In 1998, he was named Distinguished University Professor of Finance and Statistics. From 1996-2021, he was managing editor of the Journal of Financial Economics.
As a researcher, Schwert's most influential publications, as measured by the number of citations listed at Google Scholar, concern the volatility of stock market prices. On Google Scholar, he has over 42,000 citations. His articles include: