EDHEC PhD in Finance - Curriculum
A well-structured and rigorous programme
The PhD in Finance at EDHEC Business School 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. Participants work closely with faculty and alongside the EDHEC Risk and Asset Management Research Centre to 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 42 days and can be completed in seven 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. Research workshops and presentations take place in EDHEC’s e-learning classroom 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 will be required to present the progress of their dissertation research to faculty and peers at two formal presentations before oral defence. Candidates will work closely with their supervisor 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 20 hours per week to readings, assignments, and independent research.
Prerequisites
Programme prerequisites are economics and econometrics. PhD in Finance candidates on the “residential track” who may be lacking in these fields will have the opportunity to take supplementary graduate courses at EDHEC Business School during the first year of their doctoral studies while ad-hoc off-site and distance-learning solutions will be provided to participants on the “executive track”.
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.
The EDHEC PhD in Finance requires four core courses:
Financial Economics
The objective of this course is to study the theoretical foundations of modern financial economics. The main themes covered will include individual consumption and investment decisions under uncertainty, stochastic dominance, mean variance theory, capital market equilibrium and asset valuation, arbitrage pricing theory, consumption-based asset pricing, option pricing, dynamic portfolio decisions, and incomplete markets.
Corporate Finance
This course covers a wide range of topics in the modern theory of corporate finance. Topics include capital structure decisions, distribution policy, financial intermediation, incomplete financial contracting, initial and seasoned public offerings, market for corporate control, corporate reorganisation and bankruptcy, financing in imperfect markets, security design under adverse selection, and moral hazard.
Continuous-Time Financial Economics
This course covers continuous-time models for dynamic asset pricing, derivatives assets, the term structure of interest rates and optimal consumption and portfolio choices. The emphasis will be on acquiring the technical tools required for solutions to financial problems.
Empirical Methods in Finance
This course focuses on applications of econometric methods in finance. Topics include estimation and testing of asset pricing models, return predictability in time-series and cross sections, and issues related to volatility processes, continuous-time processes, dynamic conditional moments, extreme values, long memory, dynamic mixture models, transaction data, microstructure of financial markets, behavioural finance, and event studies.
Each course is of 25 hours’ duration and all four courses are mandatory.
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 2008/2011, the tentative catalogue of elective research seminars is as follows:
- Advanced Asset Pricing
- Advanced Corporate Finance
- Topics in Financial Econometrics
- ALM and Optimisation
- Risk & Portfolio Management
- Alternative Investments
- Behavioural Finance
Research Presentation Series
Over the course of the programme, each PhD candidate will be 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 30 hours’ duration. When they are not presenting, PhD candidates on the “executive track” can participate remotely by joining the school’s virtual classroom.
Research Workshop
PhD candidates will have the opportunity to attend the EDHEC Risk and Asset Management Research Centre bimonthly research workshop at which faculty and research engineers present and discuss their ongoing research work. By participating actively in the research workshop, PhD candidates will further their knowledge and understanding of current research and increase their preparation for future research presentations. The Centre’s workshop will be accessible live over the Internet and PhD participants will enjoy full access to multimedia recordings of past sessions.
Dissertation
All candidates will 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 professional journals.
Dissertation work will start in the first year of the programme with the drafting of a proposal to be submitted before the beginning of the second year and will intensify as course requirements wane. PhD candidates will be 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 will work closely with their director.
