Finance

The PhD programme in finance looks for talented individuals interested in excelling in financial research. Our objective is to prepare such candidates for top careers in academia, financial institutions and government. Faculty members have been selected due to their active involvement in cutting-edge financial research and their readiness to provide expert guidance to any candidate ready for the challenge. Research by our academic staff have been published in the Journal of Finance, Journal of Portfolio Management, Journal of Futures Markets, Review of Economics and Statistics, Financial Management, Journal of Banking and Finance, Pacific Basin Finance Journal, Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Journal of International Money and Finance, Journal of Financial Research, Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, Financial Review, and the Journal of Business.

Currently, the areas of financial research interest include asset pricing, banking and monetary systems, bank performance and supervision, corporate control, Initial Public Offerings (IPO) and Seasoned Equity Offerings (SEO), share repurchase, bank insurance, international finance and investments, mutual funds, term structure, bonds and other fixed income securities, risk management, foreign exchange markets, futures and options markets, stock markets, portfolio management, market microstructure, and international financial markets.

The Division of Banking and Finance, together with the Centre for Research in Financial Services (CREFS), regularly sponsors seminars that discuss issues in current financial research. Our faculty and doctoral students are encouraged to present their research during these forums. Speakers from many other universities, both local and international, are also featured. These seminars provide an essential ingredient for PhD students who are encouraged to attend and to participate.

Faculty members in the Division of Banking and Finance, through CREFS and the Centre for Financial Engineering (CFE), frequently conduct academic research for publication and applied research for industry.

The desired undergraduate training for doctoral candidates in Finance is in a quantitative discipline. Applicants are expected to have had some background knowledge in economics, mathematics and basic accounting. The courses that all Finance PhD candidates have to undergo include Microeconomics, Financial Mathematics, Econometrics, and Statistical Methods. Candidates will also complete at least two advanced financial theory courses and a comprehensive examination before embarking on their dissertation.

FINANCE FACULTY & THEIR RESEARCH INTERESTS

CHONG, Beng Soon
PhD (Washington University, St. Louis)
Banking, corporate finance, and equity & fixed income securities

COVRIG, Vicentiu
PhD (Arizona State University)
Asymmetric information and price discovery in the foreign exchange market.

DING, David K.
PhD (University of Memphis)
Market microstructure of financial markets, international investments, and international corporate finance.

HO, Kim Wai
PhD (Nanyang Technological University)
Corporate finance, investments, and financial institutions and markets.

KANG, Joseph
PhD (Southern Methodist University)
Fixed income securities, options and futures, Asian bond valuation, and risk management.

LAU, Sie Ting
PhD (University of Texas at Arlington)
Equities, market microstructure of financial markets, and corporate finance.

LIU, Ming Hua
PhD (University of Wales)
Financial risk management.

LOW, Chan Kee
PhD (Monash University)
Motor vehicle premium rating, investment return models, macroeconometric modelling.

RAHMAN, Shafiqur
PhD (University of Illinois)
Asset pricing models, stock market volatility and index derivatives, performance evaluation of institutional investors, and portfolio management and theory.

SUN, Qian
PhD (Arizona State University)
Investment analysis, international finance, and emerging markets.

TAN, Khee Giap
PhD (University of East Anglia)
Macroeconometric and monetary economics.

TAN, Khye Chong
PhD (University of London)
Sealed-bid auction mechanisms and mortality investigations and ageing issues.

TAN, Kok Hui
PhD (Arizona State University)
Risk management, foreign exchange market, derivative securities, and fixed income securities.

VALDEZ, Emiliano Andres
PhD (University of Wisconsin)
Actuarial science, applications of financial economics, survied analysis and marotality investigations, modelling dependence, competing risk models, and economics of risk & insurance.

WANG, Peiming
PhD (University of British Columbia)
Discrete data modelling, mixture models and applications, analysis of longitudinal count data, and financial risk management.

WU, Yuan
PhD (University of New South Wales)
Applications of statistics to business and finance, repeated measures analysis, statistical computing, and traffic accidents analysis.

YAN, Yuxing
PhD (McGill University)
Quantitative analysis, derivatives, and financial modelling.

FUNCTIONAL COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
Students in the finance specialisation must choose at least two of the following courses as part of their coursework component.

Seminar in Theory of Finance I	This seminar provides the foundation for the study of financial economics. The topics covered include individual investment decisions under uncertainty, stochastic dominance, mean-variance portfolio theory, theories of capital market equilibrium and asset valuation, arbitrage pricing theory, valuation theory, one-period models, the market model, multi-period models, and equilibrium in capital markets. The seminar also looks at options, futures and derivative markets, investment performance, empirical methods in finance, distributions of asset returns, the impact of events on asset prices, estimation and testing of asset pricing models, measurement problems in financial data, predictability of returns, and changes in risk and volatility. Pertinent research related to the topics will also be discussed.
Seminar in Theory of Finance II	This seminar builds on the foundations laid down in the Seminar in Theory of Finance I. It includes topics such as stochastic models of continuous trading, viability and state-price densities, equivalent martingale measures, optimal consumption with complete markets and under constraints, asset pricing and equilibrium models in continuous time, general equilibrium and rational expectations, theory of information, and learning from prices in rational expectations equilibrium models. The seminar also covers topics on moral hazard, adverse selection, signalling, bidding theories, financial decisions of the firm, advanced theory and empirical investigations of dividends, capital structure, mergers and acquisitions, the role of debt in corporate finance and banking, the Modigliani-Miller propositions, and contracting theory. Pertinent research related to the topics will also be discussed.
Contemporary Issues in Finance	This seminar discusses the current trends in finance research. It includes topics in corporate finance, investments, and financial intermediation. The study of seminal and topical papers in finance will be emphasised. The focus is on the research methodology and implications for decision making.

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