The purpose of the Ph.D. in Business Administration with specialization in Finance is to prepare students to become accomplished researchers, educators and analysts in the area of Finance. The Ph.D. graduates in Finance will be prepared to conduct original research and apply state of the art quantitative methods to complex problems in Finance.
• Required courses (9 Credit Hours)
FINA 800 The Theory of Finance
The course seeks to study some of the seminal work in finance. It will also survey many current issues in finance academic research. The goal of this course is to give the students grounding in some of the classic issues in finance, but also introduce them early into the concept of what research is, and more explicitly, where it is. This course provides an in depth literature background for students interested in Corporate Finance Theory and in Asset Pricing.
FINA 801 Empirical Methods in Finance
The course focuses on applied work in finance. The aim of the course is to prepare students to PhD empirical research in finance. The course will cover portfolio theory, portfolio management, portfolio performance evaluation, and assets valuation. The course will cover empirical methods in quantitative finance in cross sectional, panel, and time series domains. Students are expected to search and update a topic of interest in finance. A major part of the course student’s evaluation will be based on a submitted proposal that covers a specific topic in finance. The proposal will have a concise review of the literature and methodology used in the student’s chosen area.
FINA 802 Current Issues in Finance
The objective of the course is to explore interesting research questions in finance. We will work toward this goal by introducing students to several advanced topics in finance and expose students some current issues. An emphasis will be put on the link between empirical and theoretical work, and how to think about research questions critically. Articles from the well-known refereed journals constitute the primary material for this course.
• Elective Specialization Courses (6 Credit Hours)
Select two courses from the following list:
FINA 803 Fixed Income Securities
The course deals with recent developments in fixed income markets. The course emphasizes the empirical findings in the corporate and Government bond valuation literature. Throughout the course students will calibrate and implement fixed income models using corporate bonds data. Topics covered include interest rate risk and Government bond pricing using continuous-time term structure models. Credit risk is then introduced with corporate bonds through continuous-time term-structure models with stopping times. The recent advancements in the field of fixed income including structural models and reduced form models are deeply explored.
FINA 804 Financial Markets and Institutions
The course focuses on the operational mechanisms of financial institutions, particularly banks, mutual funds, investment banks, insurance companies, pension funds, and venture capital firms. The topics covered will be extended, but not limited, to cover the international financial system, financial regulation, risk management in financial institutions, financial crises in developed and emerging market economies, and Islamic banking.
FINA 805 Financial Risk Management
The course deals with the recent developments in financial engineering. These spectacular advancements increased substantially the challenges of risk management to offer hedging solutions. Accordingly, the main focus of this course is to strengthen the student’s knowledge in risk management applied to investment and wealth management. Credit risk modelling and liquidity risk modelling may also discussed. Topics covered include volatility modelling using daily return data, dynamic correlation and beta, risk management using intraday data, and portfolio management using option data.
FINA 806 Islamic Banking and Finance
This course examines the core principles of Islamic banking and finance. Its aims are to develop an appreciation of the Sharia compliant financial products and the rationale for the prohibition of Riba (usury) in Sharia compliant financial instruments. The course will look in detail at the financial techniques applied by Islamic banks with detailed analysis of Islamic asset and fund management and risk sharing concepts (PLS model). Additionally, this course will examine the Islamic Sukuk (bonds) and Takaful (insurance) market.
ECON 800 Advanced Microeconomics
This course provides an advanced level discussion of key-concepts of microeconomic theory and develops an appreciation of the usefulness of microeconomic analysis. Topics include consumer and producer theory, partial and general equilibrium, competition and market power, welfare analysis, input markets, game theory, market failure, and asymmetric information.
ECON 801 Applied Econometrics
This course provides a solid grounding in advanced developments in applied econometrics. A major feature of the course is the use of both analytical and computer-based approaches. Topics include linear and multiple regression models, model misspecifications, time series models, nonlinear models, choice models and panel data.