STUDIES > Spring 2010

Empirical Corporate Finance
 

Time: 24.5. - 28.5.2010
 
Place: Helsinki, Aalto University School of Economics
 
NFN Travel Grant: NFN will provide travel grants for a limited number of Nordic and Baltic doctoral students in finance coming outside Finland in order to participate in this course. Please apply for travel grant with this form (rtf).

Instructor: Professor Renée Adams (UQ Business School, University of Queensland)

Lectures: 20 h of lectures

Course objectives: This course offers a doctoral level introduction to Empirical Corporate Finance and aims to prepare doctoral students to do research on their own in this field. The course is organized around published and working papers in the field with an emphasis on econometric methods. Rather than providing an exhaustive overview of the field, the course focuses in depth on selected topics to illustrate different empirical approaches to the same or related questions.  For instance using papers on ownership concentration and corporate governance, the course will highlight the following empirical themes: endogeneity, difference in difference estimators and event studies. 

Prerequisites: The course requires a good knowledge of the 1st year Ph.D. courses in econometrics as well as some basic knowledge of corporate finance.

Course outline: DOC

Literature: DOC

Lecture notes:

Notes 1&2
Notes 2
Notes 3
Notes 4
Notes 5

Exercises:

Exercise 1
Paper for exercise 1
Data for Exercise 1

Exercise 2
Paper for Exercise 2 (sent by e-mail to course participants)

The password for opening the lecture notes and exercises has been e-mailed to the course participants.

Grading: The total points of this course are 100. In order to pass the course one needs at least 40% of points (i.e. 40 points). In addition, one has to get at least 40% of the points from the written exam, i.e. 20 points. The grading of this course will be based on 

• a closed book written exam (50% weight)
• an empirical exercise and (25% weight) , deadline August 15, 2010
  
• a referee report (25% weight) , deadline August 15, 2010
  

The empirical exercise and the referee report are returned directly to Professor Adams by e-mail. Please respect the deadlines promptly. 
 
Examination date and time: Wednesday 23.6.2010, 9.00-13.00
 
Examination places:

• In Helsinki: Aalto University School of Economics, Chydenia, room G-107.
  
• In Oulu: University of Oulu, room tba.
  
• In Vaasa: University of Vaasa, room tba.
  
• Other locations: Doctoral students in other universities are requested to inform GSF by sending an e-mail to gsf@hse.fi if they wish to take the exam in their home universities. Please note that the exam must be written in presence of an exam supervisor. Thus, please submit the name of the exam supervisor at least 14 days before the examination.
  

Please note: No retake exam will be offered for any reason (beyond your control or not). However, the exam can be taken abroad where suitable exam supervision can be arranged. Payment and arrangements for supervision should be made by the student himself. In case you wish to take the exam abroad, please contact GSF by sending an e-mail to gsf@hse.fi at least 14 days before the examination.

Credit units: 6 ECTS

Participants: Doctoral students in finance. The course is also open for KATAJA as well as FDPE students. The course is also open for foreign doctoral students given that there is space in the course. A maximum number of 30 participants will be admitted. If more than 30 students are interested in participating in the course, preference will be given to GSF and other KATAJA students according to KATAJA rules.

List of participants: PDF

Applications:

• Doctoral students in Finance in Finland: Please register simply by sending an e-mail to gsf@hse.fi and provide your complete contact information.
  
• Doctoral students in related fields and doctoral students at foreign universities: Application form can be found here: PDF file or Word file Please send in addition to your complete contact information, a report on the status of your doctoral studies, and a brief CV. Please ask also your thesis advisor to send us a short letter of recommendation by-email. All the required documents should  be sent by e-mail to gsf@hse.fi
  
• The deadline for registering in this course is April 23, 2010. All applicants will be informed of their acceptance soon after the deadline.