Empirical Finance

Catalog description

This course provides an introduction to empirical analysis and research in finance. This involves the management of empirical datasets and the aspects of quantitative applications of finance theory. The goal is to enable the student to deal with the need to analyze complex and large financial and economic datasets that is present in many fields of the financial profession. The scope of the data as well as the quantitative methods used in such analysis often requires familiarity with robust computational environments and statistical packages. As such, another goal of the course is to familiarize the student with at least one such environment. Applications are conducted using real financial and economic data. The course draws on the theoretical aspects of the subjects covered, but mainly focuses on the practical matters required to undertake an empirical analysis of financial topics--e.g., the definition of the research question, the datasets required, the computational needs, and, then, the implementation. The course enables the student to evaluate outstanding financial research as well as to conduct their own research. Offered as BAFI 435 and FNCE 435 . Prereq or Coreq: MBAC 504 or MBAP 405.