Timothy Riddiough is an American academic and researcher. He is the James A. Graaskamp Chair and the Chair of the Department of Real Estate and Urban Land Economics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.^[1]

His research mainly focuses on topics such as credit risk in mortgage lending, mortgage securitization, real options, REIT investment, corporate finance, and land use regulation.

Riddiough completed his Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.) in Statistics and Operations Research in 1981 from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He received a Master of Science (M.S.) in Finance, Investment, and Banking in 1984, and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Real Estate and Urban Land Economics from the same university in 1991.^[1]

Riddiough began teaching as an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati in 1991. He worked there until 1994 and later joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). At MIT, he worked in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, where he became an associate professor and received tenure in 2000.^[1]

In 2001, he joined the University of Wisconsin–Madison as an associate professor in the Department of Real Estate and Urban Land Economics. He became a full professor there in 2002. From 2001 to 2015, he held the E.J. Plesko Chair, and in 2015, he was appointed the James A. Graaskamp Chair.^[1]

Riddiough’s work has explored how lenders and borrowers make decisions during loan defaults and restructures. He studied how foreclosure costs can lead lenders to restructure loans, and borrowers to default strategically.^[2][3][4]

He was among the first researchers to discuss the idea of "trigger events" in connection with mortgage defaults.^[5][6]

Riddiough and his colleagues have shown that flexibility in land use increases property value,^[7] and that land use rules can change the risks involved in development, which can also affect the supply of housing.^[8][9]

His later research discussed how risk and uncertainty affect real estate investments and asset-backed securities. He proposed that dividing securities into tranches can reduce risk and increase overall value in loan sales.^[10][11][12]

• Fellow of the Homer Hoyt Institute of Advanced Studies (2002)^[13]
• Fellow of the Real Estate Research Institute (2004)^[14]

• Childs, P.D.; Riddiough, T.J.; Triantis, A.J. (1996). "Mixed Uses and the Redevelopment Option". Real Estate Economics. 24 (3): 317–339. doi:[10.1111/1540-6229.00693](https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-6229.00693).
• Geltner, D.; Riddiough, T.; Stojanovic, S. (1996). "Insights on the Effect of Land Use Choice: The Perpetual Option on the Best of Two Underlying Assets". Journal of Urban Economics. 39 (1): 20–50. doi:[10.1006/juec.1996.0002](https://doi.org/10.1006/juec.1996.0002).
• Riddiough, T.J. (1997). "Optimal Design and Governance of Asset-Backed Securities". Journal of Financial Intermediation. 6 (2): 121–152. doi:[10.1006/jfin.1997.0214](https://doi.org/10.1006/jfin.1997.0214).
• Holland, A.S.; Ott, S.H.; Riddiough, T.J. (2000). "The Role of Uncertainty in Investment: An Examination of Competing Investment Models Using Commercial Real Estate Data". Real Estate Economics. 28 (1): 33–64. doi:[10.1111/1540-6229.00792](https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-6229.00792).
• Ott, S.H.; Riddiough, T.J.; Yi, H.C. (2005). "Finance, Investment and Investment Performance: Evidence from the REIT Sector". Real Estate Economics. 33 (1): 203–235. doi:[10.1111/j.1080-8620.2005.00117.x](https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1080-8620.2005.00117.x).