Finance

Fuqua’s Finance PhD program is rigorous, technical, and specifically designed for students who aspire to become faculty members at leading universities and to contribute to the research in the field at these institutions. The program provides you with the tools and techniques to push the frontiers of research in financial economics.

A unique aspect of the Fuqua Finance program is how closely our faculty work with you from the very start. The Finance team is a small group, only admitting 3 to 4 students each year, which enables ongoing faculty input for each student. Those who complete the program will receive a PhD in Business Administration with a Finance focus.

Overview of Program Requirements

Program Requirements

The Finance PhD program requires you to complete:

  • Area-specific requirements
    • Course requirements as outlined below
    • A second-year research paper
    • A finance qualifying exam will be administered and evaluated by the finance faculty committee at the end of Year 2
    • Teaching and research assistantship
  • A preliminary exam / comprehensive evaluation which will include the presentation of your second-year paper and your performance in the courses and finance qualifier
  • Dissertation thesis proposal
  • Final dissertation and defense exam

Check out the curriculum

Finance Research

The field of Finance studies the pricing of capital assets and the financial decisions of individuals and firms. Most, but not all of the research is related to the sub-fields of macro-finance and asset pricing, corporate finance, and recently, behavioral finance.

    Macro-Finance and Asset Pricing

    Faculty members are actively engaged in both analytical and empirical asset pricing theory.  Some areas of recent research include:

    • Macro-Finance
    • Asset Pricing
    • International investment
    • Hedge funds
    • Climate Change

    Corporate Finance

    Faculty members’ research also covers theoretical and empirical corporate finance.  Some recent work has been in:

    • Financial Intermediation
    • Risk Management
    • Private Equity and Venture Capital
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Corporate Governance

    Behavioral Finance

    Behavioral finance is a new, dynamic field of research, with our Fuqua faculty at the forefront:

    • Overconfidence, investment policy and CEO compensation
    • Managerial overconfidence and corporate policies
    Finance Recent Placements

    The placements of our PhD students span empirical and theoretical work in asset pricing and corporate finance in the following universities:

    • Song Ma (2016) - Yale University
    • Basil Williams (2015) - New York University, Economics
    • Kai Li (2013) - Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
    • Howard Kung (2012) - University of British Columbia
    • Hyunseob Kim (2012) - Cornell University
    • Justin Murfin (2010) - Yale University
    • Ivan Shaliastovich (2009) - Wharton (University of Pennsylvania)
    • Jules van Binsbergen (2007) - Stanford Graduate School of Business
    • Dana Kiku (2007) - Wharton (University of Pennsylvania)
    • Bruce Carlin (2007) - University of California, Los Angeles
    • Mark Leary (2006) - Cornell University

     

    Additional Information about the Finance Area