Ph.D. – Finance Specialization

Curriculum

Overall Expectations

Our goal is to develop scholars in finance who will contribute to the general field of business education in higher institutions. We prepare you for academic careers by providing both intensive, closely mentored research and classroom teaching experiences. At the end of your period of study, you should be able to demonstrate not only successful research performance in terms of conference presentations and published papers but also hands-on teaching experiences in the classroom.

To be able to accomplish this goal, you are expected to fulfill the program requirements in a timely manner. This will involve persistent effort in the classroom and outside, during the academic semesters and intervening summers. For a successful placement after completion of the program of study, you must be able to provide evidence of research performance at the highest standard possible before the job interviews occur at FMA.

A GPA of 3.0 is the required minimum for maintaining student status. The Finance faculty will evaluate each student’s progress in the spring of each year and identify strengths and weaknesses. Positive evaluations by the faculty considering overall contributions are necessary for retaining assistantship support for the successive year.

Milestones in Brief

Time Requirements Milestone
End of Year 1, Semesters 1-2 Course Work: 22-23 credits Course Completion
Summer 1 Research Paper #1 Paper Presentation to Faculty early Fall 2
End of Year 2, Semesters 1-2
  • Course Work: 12 credits
  • 2 Classroom Teaching
  • Assistantship Hours
 Required Course Work Completed
Create Doctoral Program Committee (DPC) and submit Program of Study (POS) and Request to Schedule Written Comprehensive Examination (RWC) to Graduate School with appropriate COB approval.
Summer 2
  • Written and Oral Comprehensive Examination
 Successful completion leads to pre-dissertation stage
Year 3, Semesters 1-2
  • Dissertation Research
  • 2 Classroom Teaching
  • Assistantship Hours
 Submission of Paper to FMA, etc. in Spring
Summer 3
  • Dissertation Research
 Preparation of job market packages.
Year 4, Semesters 1-2
  • Dissertation Research
  • 2 Classroom Teaching
  • Assistantship Hours
 Dissertation Proposal Defense and Dissertation Defense

Course Details

A total of 80 credits are required for granting a Ph.D. Degree in Business Administration. 30 of 80 credits transfer from the Master’s degree, regardless of where it is earned. Remaining 42 credits must be earned in residence at URI.

The Finance program offers four required seminars (12 credits). In addition to required BUS601 and BUS602, the Finance program recommends a total of 20 credits to advance knowledge and depth in Financial Instruments and Institutions as well as Economics and Mathematics/Statistics disciplines. The latter two disciplines exist outside COB but within URI. Choice of electives must be approved by the Mentor/Major Professor.

Semester Courses
Year 1, Semester 1 (12 credits)
  • BUS601 – Practicum in Business Teaching (1 credit)
  • FIN604 – Finance Doctoral Seminar (3 credits)
    • Empirical Methods in Finance (Tsafack)
  • EEC528 – Microeconomic Theory (4 credits)
  • EEC576 – Econometrics (4 credits)
Year 1, Semester 2 (10 credits)
  • BUS602 – Colloquium in Business Research (1 credit)
  • FIN604 – Finance Doctoral Seminar (3 credits)
    • Corporate Finance (Lin)
  • 2 Electives from list below (6 credits)
Year 2, Semester 1 (6 credits)
  • FIN604 – Finance Doctoral Seminar (3 credits)
    • Foundations of Asset Pricing (Goto)
  • Course Syllabus (Fall 2016)
  • 1 Elective from list below (3 credits)
Year 2, Semester 2 (6 credits)
  • FIN604 – Finance Doctoral Seminar (3 credits)
    • Advanced/Applied Topics (Goto)
  • 1 Elective from list below (3 credits)
Years 3-4 (18 credits)
  • Independent and Dissertation Research

Recommended List of Electives

  • Advanced Econ Courses
    • Advanced Microeconomic Theory I, II
    • Game Theory
    • Advanced Econometrics
    • Econometric Applications in Resource Economics
  • Math/Stat Courses
    • Multivariate Statistics
    • Mathematical Statistics
    • Probability and Stochastic Processes
    • Structural Modeling
    • A few other statistics courses such as Statistical Learning, Statistical Networks, etc. may be useful.
  • MSF Courses – especially for students who are not very familiar with financial instruments and institutions.
    • Derivative Markets
    • Applied Time Series Methods and Business Forecasting
    • Fixed Income Analysis
    • Advanced Portfolio Theory
    • Advanced International Financial Management
    • Security and Investment Analysis
    • Advance Financial Theory
    • Hedge Fund and Investment Banking
    • Risk Management