FIN521 Topics in Empirical Corporate Finance

• Topics

  This intensive PhD course surveys important empirical regularities in corporate finance. There are four broad themes:

  (1) Performance econometrics and event studies: Event study design and portfolio performance evaluation procedures used to infer valuation impacts of corporate actions. Examples of performance estimation.

  (2) Corporate funding policies and security design: What do funding policies imply for the horse-race between classical trade-off and pecking order theories? How does security design lower bankruptcy costs, and what constitute an optimal bankruptcy system?

  (3) Corporate takeovers: Valuation effects of takeover activity, sources of takeover gains, and empirical investigations of optimal bidding theories for competition preemption, the payment method (cash versus stock), bidder toeholds in the target.

  (4) Corporate governance and incentives: The international corporate governance debate. Self-dealing and the structure of boards. Optimal versus actual executive and director compensation policies.

• Learning outcome

  Upon course completion the candidate can:

  Knowledge

  • describe important topics on the research frontier of empirical corporate finance
  • evaluate and critique various methods and approaches to conducting empirical research in this area

  Skills

  • formulate hypotheses, plan and carry out empirical research within empirical corporate finance
  • carry out research and scholarly research work at a high international standard and be able to publish in international peer reviewed finance journals

  General competence

  • communicate research within empirical corporate finance
  • actively participate in debates about the field in national and international scholarly forums
  • present his or her own research.

• Teaching

  The course takes place over four days. Each day covers a mix of lectures and student presentations.

• Restricted access

  • PhD candidates at NHH
  • PhD candidates at Norwegian institutions
  • PhD candidates at other institutions
  • PhD candidates from the ENGAGE.EU alliance

• Required prerequisites

  Master-level knowledge of corporate financial economics.

• Compulsory Activity

  • Mandatory class attendance in all lectures (100%).
  • Write-up of two homework assignments. The assignments will be handed out in early January, with a submission deadline set for March.
  • Active class participation.

  Compulsory activities (work requirements) are valid for one semester after the semester they were obtained.

• Assessment

  The final course grade is determined by an individual written term paper (100%). The submission deadline is in mid-June.

• Grading Scale

  Pass/fail

• Computer tools

  Computer with standard statistics software (e.g. Stata)

• Literature

  Selected articles from the following volumes:

  Eckbo, B. Espen (ed.), 2007, Handbook of Corporate Finance: Empirical Corporate Finance, Volume 1, (Elsevier/North-Holland Handbook of Finance Series), ISBN: 978-0-44-4508980.

  Eckbo, B. Espen (ed.), 2008, Handbook of Corporate Finance: Empirical Corporate Finance, Volume 2, (Elsevier/North-Holland Handbook of Finance Series), ISBN: 978-0-44-4530905.

  Constantinides, George M, Milton Harris and Rene Stulz (eds.), 2013, Handbook of the Economics of Finance, Volume 2A, (North-Holland Handbooks of Economics Series). ISBN: 978-0-44-453594-8.

  Eckbo, B. Espen, Gordon Phillips and Morten Sorensen (eds.), 2023, Private Equity and Entrepreneurial Finance, (Handbook of the Economics of Corporate Finance, Vol.1, (Handbooks of Economics, Elsevier/North-Holland). ISBN: 978-0-12-820149-7

  Lo, Andrew W. and Robert C. Merton (eds.), Annual Review of Financial Economics, Vol. 1 - 17. (Annual Reviews, Palo Alto, Calif.)

  Foundations and Trends in Finance, Vol. 1-14. (NOW Publishers, Inc.)

• Retake

  Re-take is offered the semester after the course was offered for students with valid compulsory activities (work requirements). Additionally, the students must fulfill one of the two requirements listed below in order to be eligible for re-take:

  • Students who, at the original exam failed or got a grade below C
  • Students who were sick on the day of the exam and has provided a valid sick note ("sykemelding")

  Students will have the opportunity to submit a revised version of their work for the re-take assessment. If a revised version of the work is submitted, this must be clearly indicated on the front page.