Specializations
PhD in Finance
This specialization introduces students to all areas of the discipline including capital markets, corporate finance, asset pricing, financial institutions and investments. Courses are taught by finance faculty at Smith as well as from the Queen's Economics Department. Courses in economics and quantitative methods are important supplements to the core finance classes, giving students a strong foundation for embarking on either theoretical or empirical research.
Is this Specialization for you?
Discover how this program aligns with your academic or research oriented career goals. Request a virtual one-on-one meeting with a member of our program team.
Program Structure and Content
Each student is required to complete the following courses as well as a research project of publishable quality, present at our annual Smith Grad Student Consortium, comprehensive exams, and present at a research seminar in year 3.
Course offerings change from year to year. This sample stream is not reflective of a guaranteed curriculum but is instead an example of what a curriculum could look like in a given year. Please note the minimum requirement to complete a degree is 27 credits. Many of our area groups will exceed the minimum courses to satisfy job market needs in academia.
With supervisor approval, students can select MGMT specialization courses from other area groups. Electives can be any other MGMT course or a course from another department at the supervisor’s discretion.
Course descriptions are available on the School of Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs website. Any non-MGMT courses are linked below.
Sample Finance PhD Curriculum
| Course | Credits |
|---|---|
| Core | |
| MGMT 901 Research Foundations | Pass/Fail |
| MGMT 993 Teaching and Learning in Management and Business | Pass/Fail |
| MGMT 989 Major Research Project | Pass/Fail |
| MGMT 994 Upper Year Research Presentation | Pass/Fail |
| MGMT 999 PhD Thesis | Pass/Fail |
| Specialization – MGMT | |
| MGMT 921 Capital Markets, Theory and Empirics | 3 |
| MGMT 922 Corporate Finance, Theory and Empirics | 3 |
| MGMT 923 Financial Economics | 3 |
| MGMT 927 Directed Readings and Workshop | 3 |
| Electives – Supervisor Approved MGMT or Other Department | |
| ECON 810/811 Microeconomic Theory / Advanced Microeconomic Theory I (or other elective) | 3 |
| ECON 815/816 Macroeconomic Theory / Advanced Macroeconomic Theory I (or other elective) | 3 |
| Methods/Related Field | |
| ECON 852 Quantitative Methods / MGMT 988: Applied Statistics and Econometrics | 3 |
| MGMT 990 Econometrics Methods | 3 |
| ECON 850 Econometrics I / ECON 851: Econometrics II | 3 |
| Total Credits | 27 |
Examples of possible electives from other departments for the Finance specialization include: