Financial Economics & Research

This doctoral-level course will introduce students to financial economics and the research methodology that supports advancement in the field. One major course objective is to provide the core theoretical foundations on which the various subfields, such as corporate finance and investments, rely upon. The second objective is to become familiar with financial data and the methodology to test the empirical evidence to validate theoretical arguments. Topics will include utility theory under uncertainty, stochastic dominance, state preference theory, mean-variance portfolio theory, asset pricing, and contingent claims pricing. Topics that support corporate finance, such as information asymmetry and agency theory, will also be introduced.