Douglas W. Diamond specializes in the study of financial intermediaries, financial crises, and liquidity. His work has appeared in such notable journals as the i> Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Finance, the Review of Economic Studies, the American Economic Review, and the Journal of Political Economy. His research has been funded with grants from the National Science Foundation and the Garn Institute of Finance.

He has taught at Yale and was a visiting professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology as well as the University of Bonn. He is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and worked for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System while a graduate student.

In addition to his roles as a researcher and professor, Diamond is a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, a position he has held since 1990, and is on the Board of Directors of the Center for Research in Security Prices. Diamond is a former president of the American Finance Association and the Western Finance Association. He is also a fellow of the Econometric Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Finance Association. He joined Chicago Booth in 1979.

Diamond earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Brown University in 1975. He earned master's degrees in 1976 and 1977 and a PhD in 1980 in economics from Yale University.