PhD in Finance | Lundquist College of Business

Events

18Jun

Job Shadow Program Site Visits

Spring term 2018 Job Shadow Program participants will visit their host companies on one of four days: June 15, 18, 19 or 20.
18Jun

Summer Executive Leadership Certificate Program Week 3: Speed-To-Market at 109 NW Naito

Summer Executive Leadership Certificate Program Week 3 Speed-To-Market Earn an executive education certificate in sports product leadership. The University of Oregon has...
18Jun

Lundquist College of Business Undergraduate Commencement Ceremony at Matthew Knight Arena

Undergraduate business and accounting majors who graduated fall 2017, winter 2018, or who applied on DuckWeb to graduate spring 2018, summer 2018, or fall 2018 are invited to...
19Jun

Job Shadow Program Site Visits

Spring term 2018 Job Shadow Program participants will visit their host companies on one of four days: June 15, 18, 19 or 20.
20Jun

Job Shadow Program Site Visits

Spring term 2018 Job Shadow Program participants will visit their host companies on one of four days: June 15, 18, 19 or 20.
25Jun

Summer Executive Leadership Program Week 4: Global Marketplace at 109 NW Naito

Summer Executive Certificate Program Week 4 Global Marketplace Earn an executive education certificate in sports product leadership. The University of Oregon has partnered...
30Jun

Application Deadline: $500 Annual Accounting Student Scholarship

Excel University, Microsoft Excel training for CPAs and accounting professionals, is offering a $500 scholarship to students who have a declared accounting major or an...
6Jul

Registration Deadline: esports 101 Workshop at Online

The University of Oregon’s Warsaw Sports Marketing Center and Turner Sports have partnered to create an interactive workshop for sports industry professionals. Organized,...
7Jul

Sustainable Invention Immersion Week at UO Innovation Hub

Do you support sustainability? Are you entrepreneurially minded? Join us this summer for a FREE one-week workshop where students of all majors work on teams to build a...
13Jul

esports 101: An Interactive Professional Workshop at Turner Studios

The University of Oregon’s Warsaw Sports Marketing Center and Turner Sports have partnered to create an interactive workshop for sports industry professionals. Organized,...

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The Sound of Sustainability

The modern symphonic orchestra is perhaps the greatest musical instrument ever invented. The cacophony of strings, winds, brass, and percussion is realized through proper preparation that includes all contracted musicians having practiced their fair share, full orchestral rehearsals, production coordination on stage, marketing, strategic planning, fundraising, and an audience to witness the final product. The […]
Natural Products Expo West: Lessons from Outside the Classroom

In the United States the natural foods and products industry is never more celebrated that it is at Expo West. Natural Products Exposition West is an extravagant display of the veterans, the staples and the startups in the natural products world. Every March, the Anaheim Convention Center floods with over 85,000 attendees and all the […]
Logistics at the End of the World: Lessons from Afghanistan

Much of what I know about business and sustainability is from the perspective of the military. For the last nine years, I have served on active duty as a Logistics Officer in the United States Army. Over those years, I have worn many hats and held many important duties. No matter the situation, three things […]
Takeaways from LEED GA Training

Last week a group of MBA students were given the opportunity to participate in a LEED Green Associate training by Leading Green. Many jumped at the chance to gain new skills and enhance their resume. I wanted to take a minute to share our experiences and explain why LEED is important. What is LEED and […]
Salesforce Starts with the ‘Why’

Simon Sinek, author of , ‘Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action’, says that for a company to be successful and truly innovative, they have to know their ‘why’. A company I believe really ‘starts with the why’ is Salesforce. Looking at Salesforce from the outside, it is simply an IT […]

Program Structure

While the Ph.D. program is rigorous and challenging, it is also small and collegial. Typically, two new students enter the program each year and work closely with their fellow Ph.D. students in finance and accounting. Students develop valuable working relationships with one another and faculty that continue long after completion of the program.

The program's faculty are productive scholars and enthusiastic mentors. They are readily accessible in offices near those of the Ph.D. students. Ph.D. students actively and regularly participate in informal research discussions and present their own work. Ph.D. students also take part in research seminars given by the school's faculty and by invited faculty from other universities. Faculty members are active researchers who publish regularly in scholarly finance journals. Many have served in editorial positions with prominent journals and are widely recognized for their empirical research in the areas of corporate finance and investments.

The Ph.D. program requirements include courses and a qualifying examination in the major area of finance; courses in economics and statistics; two research papers; and a thesis. Prior to the first term in the program, most students take a short course on the mathematical tools of economic analysis.

Major area requirements

Students are required to take at least two Ph.D. seminars in each of the first two years. In preparation for the Ph.D. seminars, they are also are encouraged to take upper level finance courses in the M.B.A. program, such as Concepts of Investments and Advanced Financial Management. In addition to courses offered in the finance department, students also take courses and seminars in economics, statistics, econometrics, and accounting. Individual programs of study are tailored to students' interests and prior coursework.

The qualifying examination in finance, given in two four-hour sessions over two consecutive days, is taken during the summer following the second year of the Ph.D. program. Students who fail the first time have an opportunity to re-take the qualifying exam.

Courses in Economics and Statistics

Students must complete three courses in economics and five courses in statistics or econometrics. Typically, students take a sequence of statistics and econometric courses and a sequence of microeconomics courses offered by the economics department. Statistics, decision sciences and accounting departments also offer courses on empirical methods.

First-year research paper

The first-year research paper is due at the beginning of the fall term of the second year in the program. This paper gives students the opportunity to do independent research at the beginning of the doctoral program. In addition, the paper helps students identify specialized interests, develop writing and research skills and offers them the chance to interact with faculty. The student submits a short proposal spring quarter and a faculty advisor is assigned at that time. Most of the work on this project is completed during the summer following the first year. Students present the results of their research early in the second year of the program.

Second research paper

The second research paper is due six months after passing the qualifying examination in finance. This paper maintains the student's involvement in independent research and generally leads to the research topic for the doctoral thesis. Students work with two faculty advisors on this research.

The Thesis

The thesis is an original project that adheres to high standards of exposition, contributes to knowledge in the field of financial economics and demonstrates an ability to conduct independent research. Students are responsible for identifying their area of research and work informally with faculty in developing their topic and project. When the project is well-defined, the student forms a thesis committee that typically consists of a faculty advisor, two other faculty from the Lundquist College and one faculty from another department within the university. The student presents a thesis proposal to the faculty and other Ph.D. students after the thesis committee agrees that a suitable topic has been chosen and substantial progress has been made toward completion of the project. Ideally, the thesis proposal is defended by the beginning of the fourth year of the program.

A successful defense of the thesis proposal results in a written agreement between the student and the committee that acknowledges the project can be successfully completed. A defense of the thesis is presented when the student and the thesis committee agree that the thesis is essentially completed. A student making steady progress should complete all of the degree requirements within four years of entering the program.

Finance Ph.D. Seminars

Formal Ph.D. coursework in finance takes place in the Ph.D. seminars. The objective of the seminars is to teach students the fundamental theories, analytical techniques, and empirical methods that are employed in finance research. The seminars typically involve lively discussions and debate, and are designed to enhance the students' ability to critically evaluate others' research and to develop their own research projects.

Given the small number of faculty in the finance department, it is not possible to cover in-depth all the subfields of finance. The goal of the seminars is to provide sufficient depth in training in a few areas such that students develop the facility to study and master other fields independently.

Currently, faculty expertise resides in empirical research within the areas of corporate finance and investments.

Finance Ph.D. seminars cover the core topics of: fundamentals of valuation, utility and portfolio theory, asset pricing, options and futures, capital structure, and empirical methods. The seminars also cover such topics as corporate governance, dividends and repurchases, term structure of interest rates, fixed income securities, and financial institutions.

Training in Effective Teaching

Developing effective teaching skills is a significant part of the Ph.D. program and increasingly important in attracting offers in the academic job market. Students participate in teacher training activities conducted by the Lundquist College and by the University's Teaching Effectiveness Program. In addition, students are encouraged to observe classes taught by faculty, to serve as teaching assistants, and to use the resources available in the University's Teaching Effectiveness Program. Students typically teach four quarter-length undergraduate courses during the second through fourth years of the program.

Recent Placements

Hai Tran (2015, Loyola Marymount University)
Andrea Anthony (2014, Oregon State University)
Jason Turkiela (2014, Washington State University)
Egemen Genc (2012, Erasmus University, Netherlands)
Nguyen Tu (2011, La Trobe University, Australia)
Chung-Shin Liu (2011, Southwest University of Finance & Economics, China)
Chanyoung Eom (2011, Hanyang University, Korea)
Aziz Alimov (2007, California State University - Fullerton)
Laura Liu (2006, California State University - Fullerton)
Liwei Shan (2006, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics - China)
Susan Elkinawy (2003, Loyola Marymount University)
John Blease (2002, University of New Hampshire)
Sandy Klasa (2002, University of Arizona)

Finance PhD Program