PhD Finance
WU (Vienna University of Economics and Business)
| Application deadline: | January 9, 2013 |
| Tuition fee: |
|
| Start date: | September 2013 |
| Duration full-time: | 36 months |
| Languages: |
|
| Location: |
|
| Delivery mode: | On Campus |
| Educational variant: | Full-time |
| Project type: | Open, Predefined |
| Educational Form: | Academic |
Description
The VGSF is a center of excellence in finance, located in Vienna, Austria. Its main activities are academic research and PhD education. The VGSF offers a stimulating learning and research environment to outstanding students from around the world.
Leading scholars are regularly invited to teach courses and present their papers in the research seminar. We offer a stimulating learning and research environment and financial support to outstanding students from around the world. Our graduates can look forward to a rewarding career at leading academic institutions.
Studying at the VGSF consists of two parts: courses and research. A typical sequence of activities starts with doing most of the mandatory courses during the first year. First year students also do (extra-curricular) bridging courses as required. By the end of the second year all mandatory courses must be completed.
Students have to do six (mandatory) elective courses. Usually these are done during the second and third year. Students choose the electives depending on the focus of their research.
The PhD thesis must consist of three papers (one of which is the job market paper). Students should start working (i.e. searching for a topic, writing and presenting proposals) on their papers during the (second half of the) first year. Before and during the summer of the first year they work on their first paper. This paper is presented at the beginning of their second year at an internal conference where all faculty members and all students participate, discuss papers and give feedback.
VGSF graduates can look forward to a rewarding career at leading academic institutions. Former VGSF students have been placed at institutions like Aarhus University, Carnegie Mellon University, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Hong Kong, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of New South Wales(UNSW), the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration (NHH), Erasmus University Rotterdam, the University of Utah and the University of Wisconsin, USA.
Contents
The VGSF PhD program consists of two parts: rigorous coursework and work on the PhD thesis. The students attend courses covering all major topics in finance and analytical methods required for doing research. In particular, the courses focus on Corporate Finance, Asset Pricing and Quantitative Methods in Finance. In the past academic years students had the chance to attend courses taught by international scholars such as Tomas Björk, Rüdiger Fahlenbrach, Nicolae Garleanu, Francisco Gomes, Christopher Hennessy, David Lando, Jacob Sagi, Rossen Valkanov, Jiang Wang and Toni Whited. After passing the required exams, students start to conduct research projects on their own. In our weekly research seminar students have the opportunity to meet internationally renowned scholars presenting their state-of-the art research.
Courses
The curriculum consists of three years of course work. During the first two years the following mandatory courses must be passed:
- Quantitative Methods: This course covers various methods required for doing research in finance (essentially stochastic calculus and optimization methods). This course has been taught by Rüdiger Frey (WU).
- Financial Econometrics: This course covers important topics in empirical corporate finance and applied cross-sectional econometrics (e.g. endogeneity, measurement errors, simulation estimators, estimation of dynamic models). The course has been taught by Toni Whited (University of Rochester) and Alois Geyer (WU/VGSF).
- Corporate Finance: This course deals with the financing of the corporation and in particular with the determinants of corporate capital structure choice. The purpose of this course is to acquaint students with the relevant theories in this field. A main objective is to provide them with the knowledge to assess the latest research, and to be able to formalize corporate finance problems of their own. A special focus will be a contract theoretic approach to corporate finance. The course has been taught by Thomas Dangl (TU Vienna), Christopher Hennessy (London Business School), Josef Zechner (WU/VGSF) and Christian Laux (WU/VGSF).
- Asset Pricing: In this course students acquire essentials in asset pricing (e.g. market efficiency, state prices and arbitrage, CAPM and APT: theory and evidence), multi-period, consumption-based models). The course has been taught by Francisco Gomes (London Business School), Jacob Sagi (Vanderbilt), and Jiang Wang (MIT).
- Continuous Time Finance: The objective of the course is to present the fundamentals of arbitrage theory for pricing contingent claims in continuous time (e.g. incomplete market, the martingale approach to arbitrage pricing, interest rate theory). The course has been taught by Tomas Björk (Stockholm School of Economics).
- Finance Paper Reading: In this course students learn about key papers in financial economics, required for understanding more recent papers, and to facilitate the process of reviewing the literature for their own research. This course is taught by local faculty members of the VGSF.
- PhD Research Seminar: This course is intended as a platform for students to present their own research (proposals), and to receive feedback from faculty and colleagues. Students have to present their papers twice year and discuss two papers of their fellow students. The course is guided by VGSF faculty members.
- Paper Writing: The purpose of this course is to replicate and extend a paper (or selected aspects covered therein) published in major finance or economics journals. After preparing a proposal, students have to seek an advisor from the VGSF faculty. The final version of the paper is presented in an annual local conference, and should be suitable for submission to a conference or journal.
- Finance Research Seminar:In this course students get exposed to current research in finance. Renowned scholars from leading universities present and discuss their (working) papers. Students are meeting with the guest speaker to discuss the paper and ask questions about it.
In addition students have to pass at least six elective courses. Students can choose from a wide range of electives, depending on their area of specialization. Examples of usually offered elective courses are:
- Game Theory
- Real Options
- Advanced Corporate Finance
- Advanced Asset Pricing
- Empirical Asset Pricing
- Interest Rate Models
- Credit Risk Management
Recent elective courses have been taught by (amongst others) Christopher Hennessy from the London Business School ("Advanced Corporate Finance"), Nicolae Garleanu from the Haas School of Business, Berkeley ("Liquidity and Asset Pricing"), Rüdiger Fahlenbrach from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne ("Empirical Corporate Finance"), David Lando from the Copenhagen Business School ("Credit Risk Management"), Rossen Valkanov from the University of California San Diego ("Financial Econometrics and Empirical Portfolio Choice"), Gordon Phillips from the University of Maryland ("Interaction of Finance and Industrial Organization"), Jacob Sagi from Vanderbilt University ("Advanced Asset Pricing"), and Jiang Wang from the MIT ("Advanced Asset Pricing").
Requirements
The following requirements have to be met in order to be admitted to the PhD Program in Finance:
- Successful completion of a relevant Master's program or a relevant equivalent degree program at a recognized Austrian or foreign post-secondary institution of education (according to § 64 (4) of the Universities Act 2002)
- Proficiency in financial economics
- Proficiency in mathematics and/or statistics
- Adequate English proficiency
- Achievement potential
Application deadline:
Admission process is over. Rolling admission for the academic year 2014/15 will start in the fall of 2013. Only applications submitted within this period can be accepted. Please note that only complete applications with all the required documents can be considered.
Admission procedure:
Complete applications which meet all formal admission requirements will be evaluated by the admission committee. Based on this evaluation the best applicants will be selected and will be invited for an interview. Interviews will take place around the end of February or early March. Applicants will be given sufficient advance notice by e-mail about date, time and location of the interview.
Based on all available evidence the admission committee will determine a final ranking of applications. The applicants at the top of the ranking list will be given an admission offer, in terms of a written notice of the applicants acceptance into the program. To claim his/her place in the program, the applicant must confirm the admission offer in writing within 10 days of receipt.
If the applicant accepts the admission offer she/he will receive the admission confirmation. The admission confirmation has to be presented at the time of enrollment together with the required original documents.
Online application (overview):
All information provided in the online application must be correct and complete. In case you need to make any important subsequent corrections please contact office(@)vgsf(.)ac(.)at.
Do not submit more than one application. If we receive two or more applications from the same person, we will not consider any of them.
All correspondence will be made via e-mail using the e-mail address you have specified for the login to the online application tool. Please check your e-mails regularly and keep your mailbox ready to receive.
Applicants who will finish their Master studies after the deadline but before June 2013 are welcome to apply as well.
In the online application form you have to provide the following information:
- a self-statement of purpose
- all your degree certificates
- all your official transcripts
- curriculum vitae
- your GRE, TOEFL, GMAT, IELTS scores or any other proofs of your analytical skills and/or English knowledge:
- TOEFL (code number 9618): paper based at least 600 points; computer based at least 250 points; internet based at least 100 points, not older than two 2 years
- IELTS: at least 7.0 points (no band below 6) and not older than 2 years
- CAE
- GMAT
- GRE (code number 9618)
- or another proof of your English competence / analytical skills
- Reference letters: For a complete application at least two reference letters have to be provided. In the online tool you specify only the contact details (name and e-mail) of the persons who are willing to provide reference letters. Reference letters must be sent by e-mail to office(@)vgsf(.)ac(.)at by the person who writes the letter. Reference letters must be received before the application deadline.
English Language Requirements
| IELTS band: | 7 |
| CAE score: | 67(Grade A) |
| TOEFL paper-based test score: | 600 |
| TOEFL computer-based test score: | 250 |
| TOEFL internet-based test score: | 100 |
Funding
PhD Scholarships in Finance APPLY NOW!
The Vienna Graduate School of Finance (VGSF) invites excellent students to apply for the PhD Program in Finance (full-time program) starting in the coming academic year. Up to six scholarships will be offered to the best applicants.
You are normally required to take an English Proficiency Test if you come from a non-English speaking country.
Most European Universities recognise the IELTS test.
More information on IELTSContact
Using the form on this page, you can directly ask questions to the contactpersons at the university.
Fill out your contact information and message. The information you fill out in this form will be sent directly to the university. They will reply to you on the e-mail address you provide here.
phdportal.eu cannot take any responsibility for the answering of contacts or for the content of their replies.
