Empirical Paper

During the second year of the Ph.D. Program, all Ph.D. students write an original research paper which is acceptable to two faculty members. The second-year paper should show that the student can successfully use all the quantitative tools necessary to do high-quality applied research in Finance. We hope that some papers will be of publishable quality, however, we do not expect that they all will be.

Administrative Issues

The empirical paper will be due during the Fall semester (usually, the first Tuesday of September) of the third year. The Finance Ph.D. Coordinator will set the exact due date during the Spring semester of the previous year. Each paper will be graded by at least two faculty members (the readers). A student should select a reader from the Finance faculty. The other reader will be selected by the Finance Ph.D. Coordinator. (In general, the faculty member in charge of the Empirical paper class will be the second reader).

Performance

A student must receive either a "pass" (the paper is acceptable to the two readers) or "fail" (the paper is not acceptable to the readers). No conditional passes will be allowed. Under certain circumstances, a revision might be required. The decision regarding a student's performance on the empirical paper shall be provided to the student within three weeks of the due date. This decision will be communicated to the student in writing by the Finance Ph.D. Coordinator with copies to the BCB Office of Student Services and the Chairperson of the Advisory Committee. In the case of a fail, the letter shall cite the specific deficiencies warranting such action.

The Empirical Paper requirement is formally satisfied by successful presentation of the research paper in a Department of Finance seminar. Only papers that received a pass will be presented. The student presentation of the Empirical paper will take place during the Fall semester of the third year.

A failing grade on the empirical paper will result in dismissal from the doctoral program in Finance.

Resources

Empirical Paper Guidelines
Seminar-Job Talk