PhD in Finance
Olin’s PhD program in Finance emphasizes rigorous analytical training and prepares students to pursue careers in research and teaching at leading academic institutions across the globe. Our finance PhD program’s students have a strong quantitative background, most typically undergraduate training in economics, mathematics, engineering, or any other quantitative discipline.
Our research-active faculty members are easily accessible to students. Collaboration is encouraged early in the program, with faculty/student joint research resulting in faculty/student co-authored papers published in important journals. Much of theresearch is based on economic models to address problems such as the allocation of capital and risk and rewards in the economy. Empirical work widely uses the tools of econometrics, the application of statistics to economics.
Learn more about our Finance curriculum | Collaborative Research—Finance Faculty and PhD Students
Finance Faculty and Research
Research in finance is mostly based on economic models, which are used to address problems such as the allocation of capital, risk, and rewards in the economy. Empirical work also widely uses the tools of econometrics - the application of statistics to economics. Mathematical tools are extremely important in finance, helping to solve sophisticated models that reflect, as closely as possible, the important features of the market.
Because financial research is analytical, we look for a strong quantitative background in potential finance PhD program applicants, as evidenced by an undergraduate training in economics, mathematics, engineering, or any other quantitative discipline as well as GMAT/GRE scores.
The faculty members in the finance group at the Olin Business School are active and renowned researchers dedicated to advancing the understanding of financial economics. Faculty research interests encompass many areas of finance, including both empirical and theoretical topics. Some areas of current interest are banking and financial intermediation, corporate finance, corporate control and capital structure, mergers and acquisitions, asset pricing models, investments and portfolio allocation models, and market microstructure.
Research papers by faculty members have recently been published in well-respected journals such as:
- Journal of Finance
- Journal of Financial Economics
- Review of Financial Studies
- Econometrica
- Management Science
- Journal of Financial Intermediation
- Harvard Business Review
Olin PhD in Finance students have access to research centers such as the Wells Fargo Advisors Center for Finance and Accounting Research (WFA-CFAR). WFA-CFAR's mission is to further finance and accounting research at Olin and disseminate it to the business community. In addition to organizing a number of conferences that bring cutting edge researchers to Olin, WFA-CFAR also funds data acquisition and student travel.
Click here for more information on WFA-CFAR.
Olin PhD in Finance students also have the unique opportunity to benefit from and engage in corporate collaborations with partners such as Equifax and Alibaba. Beginning in the Summer of 2016, these collaborations have resulted in unique access to robust datasets and have already yielded several dynamic working papers.
Full-Time Finance Faculty Members
Deniz Aydin | Swaminathan Balasubramaniam | Taylor Begley | Jian Cai | Charles Cuny | Jeremy Degenhart | Jason Donaldson | Philip Dybvig | Ilias Filippou | Nicolae Garleanu | Armando Gomes | Radhakrishnan (Radha) Gopalan | Todd Gormley | Brett Green | Miao He | Xing Huang | Ohad Kadan | Lingfei Kong | Mark Leary | Jeongmin (Mina) Lee | Yaron Leitner | Hong Liu | Asaf Manela | Maarten Meeuwis | Todd Milbourn | Lorenzo Naranjo | Andy Neuhierl | David Rapach | Janis Skrastins | Timothy Solberg | Mark Taylor | Anjan Thakor | Thao Vuong | Dan Zhao | Guofu Zhou
