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EDHEC-Risk Executive Education

EDHEC-Risk Institute PhD in Finance - Curriculum

A well-structured and rigorous programme

The PhD in Finance offered by EDHEC-Risk Institute balances coursework and the dissertation to help participants acquire the tools, attitudes, and experience to develop into autonomous researchers and innovators.

The four core courses impart a thorough knowledge of financial theory and its literature and a solid comprehension of advanced analytical and research methods in financial economics. PhD candidates select five or more elective seminars and attend research workshops and presentations to acquire an intimate and detailed understanding of the most recent theoretical and modelling advances in their field of specialisation. Working closely with faculty and alongside EDHEC-Risk Institute staff, participants author insightful dissertations that advance financial knowledge and practices and are worthy of publication in scientific journals.

The presential requirement of the programme is limited to around forty days and can be completed in eight residential weeks over three years with the bulk of courses taken during the first two years of the programme. Core courses are structured into weekly blocks and should be completed over the first academic year of the programme; electives should be concentrated over the second year. Elective seminars are offered over three consecutive days in six-day blocks to give participants flexibility in scheduling and ease management of the demands of work, programme, and personal life. In addition, PhD candidates may choose from the electives offered in Nice, Singapore, and London.

Classes, research workshops and presentations take place in the School's e-learning classrooms to allow remote participation and asynchronous access.

Work on the dissertation should begin in the second half of the first year and the dissertation proposal should be completed at the start of the second year. All PhD candidates are required to present the progress of their dissertation research to faculty and peers at two formal presentations before oral defence. Candidates work closely with their adviser during all phases of the dissertation process.

Programme core courses and elective seminars are concentrated into residential weeks, the classroom is extended over the Internet for research workshops and presentations, and dissertation supervision is adapted to individual circumstances. This creates a rich collaborative environment amongst all the participants and close working relationships between PhD candidates and faculty.

Timely completion of this challenging and rewarding programme demands that participants commit approximately twenty hours per week to readings, assignments, and independent research.

Prerequisites

The programme requires significant academic background in economics, finance, mathematics, and econometrics. PhD in Finance candidates who may be lacking in these fields will be asked to complete remedial courses prior to joining the programme.

Core Courses

Core courses offer PhD in Finance candidates sound training in financial theory and analytical methods so that they can take on a broad variety of research assignments. Core courses are delivered in the first year of the programme to provide candidates with the methodological tools and necessary conceptual breadth required to decide upon a field of specialisation and refine their research projects.

Each course is of 25 hours’ duration and is offered both in Europe, from London and/or Nice, and in Asia, from Singapore. All four courses are mandatory.

The EDHEC-Risk Institute PhD in Finance requires four core courses:

Financial Economics

This course looks at the theoretical foundations of modern financial economics. Its main themes include individual consumption and investment decisions under uncertainty, mean-variance theory, the consumption-based capital asset pricing model, empirical asset pricing models, and term structure of interest rates. It covers both traditional theories and recent advances and applies basic concepts in the discrete time framework to stock and bond valuation and derivatives pricing.

Corporate Finance

This course covers a wide range of topics in the modern theory of corporate finance. Its first part looks at capital structure decisions, distribution policy, incentives problems, security design, financial distress and corporate reorganisation, and dynamic debt renegotiation. Its second part covers financial contracting under complete and incomplete contracts, asymmetric information and moral hazard, and discusses the impact of corporate and bankruptcy laws on the development of capital markets.

Continuous-Time Financial Economics

This course covers continuous-time tools for pricing financial derivatives, modelling the term structure of interest rates and valuing interest-rate sensitive claims, optimal consumption and portfolio choices, and dynamic asset pricing in equilibrium.

Empirical Methods in Finance

This course focuses on the empirical aspects of asset pricing and on the econometrics of financial markets. Topics include modelling of asset returns, return predictability in time-series and cross-sectional data, volatility processes, estimation and testing of asset pricing and inter-temporal equilibrium models, econometrics of fixed income securities, and econometrics of option pricing.

Elective Research Seminars

Elective research seminars expose PhD candidates to the latest research advances in specific fields, providing them with opportunities to develop a specialisation and acquire additional knowledge and skills necessary for their dissertation work.

For 2010/2012, the catalogue of elective research seminars is as follows:

  • Advanced Corporate Finance
  • Advanced Option Pricing
  • Bayesian Methods in Financial Econometrics
  • Behavioural Finance
  • Credit Modelling
  • Dynamic Asset Allocation Decisions
  • Empirical Option Pricing
  • Estimation of Continuous Time Models
  • Financial Econometrics of Jumps
  • Long-Run Risks in Asset Prices
  • Microstructure
  • Monte Carlo Methods in Finance
  • Portfolio Problems with High-Dimension Covariance Matrices
  • Recent Developments in Portfolio Allocation and Macro-Finance Models
  • Risk and Return in Hedge Funds
  • Risk Management and Extreme Risks
  • Term Structure of Interest Rates
  • Volatility Modelling

Each elective research seminar is of 15 hours’ duration. PhD candidates need to take a minimum of five electives and are free to participate in additional electives. They have access to electives offered in London, Nice, and Singapore.

Research Presentation Series
 
Over the course of the programme, each PhD candidate is required to make two research presentations of his/her work and to provide comments and feedback to other candidates presenting their newly developed theoretical insights and original empirical findings. The research presentation series is designed to provide peer and faculty support and advice to PhD candidates working on their dissertations as well as to hone research presentation skills. The series is of thirty hours’ duration. When they are not presenting, PhD candidates on the executive track can participate remotely by joining the school’s e-learning classrooms on-line.

Research Workshop
 
PhD candidates have the opportunity to attend the monthly doctoral research workshop at which faculty and guest scholars present and discuss their ongoing research work. PhD candidates participate actively in the doctoral research workshop to further their knowledge of current research and prepare for future research presentations. The doctoral research workshop is accessible live over the Internet and PhD participants enjoy full access to multimedia recordings of past sessions.

Dissertation
 
All candidates work individually with programme faculty on dissertation topics selected for their academic and industry relevance and according to each candidate’s research interests and professional goals. The dissertation should make a significant contribution to the advancement of knowledge and practices in the field and should be of sufficient originality and quality for publication in leading peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Dissertation work starts in the first year of the programme with the drafting of a proposal to be submitted before the beginning of the second year and intensifies as course requirements wane. PhD candidates are required to communicate the progress of their dissertation research to faculty and peers at two formal presentations scheduled in the second and third years of the programme. The dissertation should be completed and defended at the end of the third year of the programme. During all phases of the dissertation process, candidates work closely with their adviser.