Carnegie Mellon University
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Ph.D. Program in Financial Economics

This field devotes attention to the study of the effects of information, attitudes toward risk, taxation, macroeconomic fluctuations, and security market prices.

The purpose of the Ph.D. program in financial economics is to educate students in the concepts and analytical techniques needed to understand and advance the frontiers of knowledge in financial economics.

The program provides students with sound training in economics, finance, and quantitative methods, as well as the opportunity to work closely with faculty on original research.

Financial economics deals with the pricing of capital assets and the financial decisions of individuals and firms. Much of its attention is devoted to the study of the effects of information, attitudes toward risk, taxation, macroeconomic fluctuations, and time on investors' investment choices and security market prices. Issues involving the behavior of firms are also of interest, including the importance of corporate dividend, capital structure, and investment policies to firm valuation.

The Ph.D. program in financial economics is designed to educate students in the concepts and analytical techniques required for basic and applied research in these and related areas. This training typically leads to academic careers at other major business schools and economics departments.

Carnegie Mellon is one of the few institutions at which the economics department for the university as a whole is housed in the business school. This creates an environment which is especially conducive to close integration between the various management studies and economics. The Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon has long played a pioneering role in the application of new ideas and techniques in economics to financial problems.

Research Topics

Asset Pricing Theory

  • Market Incompleteness
  • The Effect of Incomplete Markets on Security Valuation
  • Risk Preferences
  • Asset Pricing and Investor Risk Preferences
  • Mortgage Valuation
  • The Valuation of Mortgage Loans

Tax Effects in Security Markets

  • Treasury Bonds
  • Tax Effects in the Relative Pricing of Treasury Bonds
  • Municipal Bonds
  • Term and Tax Effects in the Pricing of Municipal Bonds
  • Capital Gains Taxation
  • The Effect of Capital Gains Taxation on the Optimal Trading and Equilibrium Pricing of Financial Assets

Corporate Finance

  • Corporate Control
  • Capital Structure And Corporate Control
  • Optimal Bankruptcy Law

Market Microstructure

  • Design of Financial Markets
  • Limit and Market Orders
  • Trading Strategies

International Finance

  • Risk Premia in Currency Markets
  • Lottery Bonds

Please visit our Ph.D. Student Profiles page to view the profiles of our current doctoral candidates.