The Finance Concentration
The Finance concentration of the Ph.D. program in Business Administration offers an opportunity to engage in scholarly academic research in the area of modern financial economics. The Finance concentration aims at training highly motivated individuals with the modern tools of finance so that they can pursue successful careers in academia and industry.
Students are introduced to related and background areas such as Economics, Statistics, and Mathematics before entering a sequence of Finance courses. Seminars are designed to cover all aspects of Finance theory and applications. Students are expected to complete all course work and examinations within three years. During the third year they are expected to defend their dissertation proposal. Students generally graduate after 4 years.
The Finance faculty consists of research-oriented scholars, with demonstrated interest in teaching Ph.D. courses and supporting Ph.D. students in their academic work. The topics of their research interests cover a wide range of areas and expertise. Some of these areas include: Investments, Corporate Finance, Banking, Financial Institutions, International Finance, Futures, Options, Market Valuation, Commodity Markets, and Corporate Bankruptcy and Reorganization.
Finance doctoral students can use the resources of The Center for International Securities and Derivative Markets, a leading center for research in investment management, located at the School of Management.
Degree Requirements
First Year Courses
| Fall Semester SOM 871 - Intro to Financial Theory STAT 607 - Probability & Statistics I REC 701 - Quantitative Methods REC 711 - Microeconomics I | Spring Semester SOM 894 - Seminar in Finance I STAT 608 - Probability & Statistics II REC 712 - Microeconomics II REC 702 - Econometric Methods II |
| Paper: Summer Empirical Paper | |
Second Year Courses
| Fall Semester SOM 894 - Seminar in Finance II REC 703 - Econometric Methods II ECON 706 - Macroeconomics | Spring Semester SOM 894 - Seminar in Finance III IE 684 - Stochastic Processes |
| Paper: Second Summer Review Paper | |
Third Year Courses
| Fall Semester SOM 894 - Seminar in Finance IV SOM 788 - Dissertation Thesis | Spring Semester SOM 894W - Finance Workshop* |
* The Finance Workshop is offered every semester. All Finance Ph.D. students must attend and participate in this workshop as a non-credit class every semester until they graduate. Third-year students will register for this class only if they are about to defend their dissertation proposal. Ever proposal must be presented at the workshop before it is defended.
Other Requirements
Student Advising: Students must prepare their program of study ahead of time and in consultation with the Finance Ph.D. Coordinator.
First Year Review: Every student's progress is evaluated at the end of the first year. A student may be asked to take the core examination if the finance faculty is not satisfied with his/her progress during the first year. The core examination consists of two parts:
- Core Examination in Research Methods: Students are responsible for quantitative material (probability, statistics, and regression) covered in their first year courses.
- Core Examination in Finance: Students are responsible for financial economics material covered in their first year courses.
Students must take both written examinations. If the student's performance in these examinations is not satisfactory, he/she will be asked to leave the program.
The topic covered in the "First Summer Paper" must be approved by the Finance Ph.D. Coordinator. The student will present his/her paper to finance faculty.
Second Year Review: Every student is expected to take the comprehensive examination in finance at the end of the second year. This examination will be generally offered in the last week of August in each year. The Ph.D. Finance coordinator solicits ideas from all finance faculties about the questions that should be asked. The Ph.D. Finance coordinator will prepare the examination. Questions dealing with the student's minor and thesis areas will be formulated by a faculty member familiar with the students work. The written examination is designed to cover broad areas in Finance and test for breadth of knowledge and ability to synthesize theoretical and empirical work.
Upon unsatisfactory performance, the student may be asked to take an oral exam, write a paper, retake the examination, or asked to leave the program.
The topic covered in the "Second Summer Paper" must be approved by the Finance Ph.D. Coordinator. The student may be asked to present his/her paper to finance faculty.
The Ph.D. Proposal Defense: This should contain the main idea of the dissertation that must be the student's original thought(s). It must also demonstrate the whole spectrum of related issues that will be tackled in the final form of the dissertation. It must clearly describe what the dissertation seeks to accomplish and its anticipated contribution to the Finance literature. By this time most students identify a faculty as their Dissertation Chair. The student and the Dissertation Chair will then decide on a dissertation committee of at least three faculty members, two of whom must be from the Finance faculty. At this point the student should notify the SOM Ph.D. Director and Finance Coordinator of the date for the Ph.D. proposal defense. The proposal must be defended within the full presence of Finance faculty and graduate students. Before the formal defense takes place, the student is expected to present his/her work in the Finance Workshop (SOM 894W).
Dissertation (Ph.D. Thesis): This is the last requirement before a student's graduation. After the student has successfully solved all remaining problems in the dissertation and satisfied all demands of the members of the dissertation committee, and upon the initiative of the dissertation chair, the date of the dissertation defense is scheduled and all faculty and students are invited to attend and ask questions. Upon the successful defense of the dissertation, as judged by the dissertation committee, the student may proceed with the deposit of the final copy of the dissertation according to the guidelines set by the Graduate School. Upon the recommendation of the dissertation committee, the student may further revise the dissertation if additional questions have come up during the defense presentation.