Finance
Key information
About the Executive PhD in Finance
The Executive PhD is a four-year, part-time degree programme, culminating in a dissertation that passes formal examination. It comprises of ten, forty-hour residential weeks, and independent research guided by faculty supervisors.
"The courses are excellent and highly tailored to our specific needs. The flexible design helps us to move quickly toward our individual goals."
Rob Roy – Executive PhD in Finance
Research Areas
Our research covers all the core areas of finance – asset pricing, corporate finance and financial markets.
It also reflects our strengths in:
- Accounting
- Banking and international finance
- Mathematical finance and financial econometrics
- Real estate
- Shipping finance.
As such, our Finance PhD students carry out research in a wide variety of areas but the faculty fosters a collaborative and engaging approach to research and you will meet many inspiring academics and experts.
We encourage you to learn more about the programme’s faculty or previous students’ successes by visiting the links below.
We take pride in producing research of the highest academic standard, and our research is published routinely in the top finance journals.
Programme structure
The Finance PhD is usually a four year programme. You are registered on the MPhil degree for the first two years during which you will follow a programme of taught courses and prepare for the transfer panel, which is a mid-point assessment of your progress.
Year 1 – Theory and Methods
In the first year you will attend four residential weeks during which you will participate in a series of seminars designed to train you in the theory and methods necessary to conduct high quality finance research. These courses are academically rigorous and require substantial preparation time before each residential week.
Week One – September
- Quantitative Research Methods: Fundamentals of Statistics (Dr Elisabetta Pellini)
- Choosing Your Research Question (Professor Charles Baden-Fuller)
- Elements of Research Design (Professor Davide Ravasi)
- Philosophy of Social Science (Professor Hugh Wilmott)
- Research Ethics (Dr Janina Steinmetz and Dr Hans Frankfort)
- Managing the PhD Experience (Dr Daisy Chung)
- Managing a Research Project (Professor Barbara Casu Lukac)
- Introduction to Library Resources (Library Staff)
Week Two - December
- Quantitative Research Methods I (Professor Giovanni Urga & Dr Elisabetta Pellini)
- Survey Design I (Dr Canan Kocabasoglu-Hillmer)
- How to Write a Literature Review (Professor Bobby Banerjee)
- Research Topics in Finance I: International Finance (Professor Ian Marsh)
- Empirical Methods in Finance I (Professor Francisco Urzua)
- Library Services and Online Resources - Working Session (Library Staff)
- Finance Research Seminar (External Speaker)
Week Three - March
- Quantitative Research Methods II (Professor Giovanni Urga & Dr Elisabetta Pellini)
- Empirical Methods in Finance II (Professor Francisco Urzua)
- Research Topics in Finance II: Mergers and Acquisitions (Professor Meziane Lasfer)
- Research Topics in Finance III: Banking and Financial Regulation (Professor Barbara Casu)
- Survey Design II (Dr Canan Kocabasoglu-Hillmer)
- Organisations: Early Debate and Implications for Trading Floors (Dr Daniel Beunza)
- Interview Techniques (Professor Paula Jarzabkowski)
- Finance Research Seminar (External Speaker)
Week Four - June
- Quantitative Research Methods III (Professor Giovanni Urga & Dr Elisabetta Pellini)
- Empirical Methods in Finance III (Professor Francisco Urzua)
- Survey Design III (Dr Canan Kocabasoglu-Hillmer)
- Research Topics in Finance IV: Banking and Financial Regulation (Dr Angela Gallo)
- Responsible Investing: Ethnographic Discovery and Finance (Dr Daniel Beunza)
- Finance Research Seminar (External Speaker)
- PhD Finance Research Days (full time PhD workshop)
- Research Presentations (all cohorts)
Year 2 – Research Development
Year 2 – First Paper and Transfer Panel
Your research training continues in this second year with workshops focused on developing specific skills such as academic writing, advanced level reading groups where we delve deeply into key current research papers.
Alongside this, you will commence research in your chosen topics and the year culminates with the defense of your first research paper before a transfer panel committee. After the successful defense of your transfer panel paper you will move onto the final two years of the PhD programme.
Week Five - September
- Quantitative Research Methods IV (Professor Giovanni Urga & Dr Elisabetta Pellini)
- Empirical Methods in Finance IV (Professor Francisco Urzua)
- Research Topics in Finance V: Behavioural Finance (Dr Simon Heyley)
- Responsible Investing: Corporate Social Responsibility (Dr Daniel Beunza)
- Finance Research Seminar (External Speaker)
- Transfer Panel: What You Need to Prepare (Professor Barbara Casu Lukac)
- Academic Writing Workshop
Week Six – June
- Quantitative Research Methods V (Professor Giovanni Urga & Dr Elisabetta Pellini)
- Empirical Methods in Finance V (Professor Francisco Urzua)
- Responsible Investing: Morality and Markets (Dr Daniel Beunza)
- How to Publish a Research Paper and Work with Co-Authors (various faculty)
- Dissertation: Thinking about the Viva (Professor Barbara Casu Lukac)
- Finance Research Seminar (External Speaker)
- PhD Finance Research Days (full time PhD workshop)
- Research Presentations and Transfer Panels (all cohorts)
Year 3 – Dissertation Research
Year 3 – Supervised Research
You complete your remaining research papers in years three and four, and will defend your work in the viva voce exam soon after completion of your thesis. Training continues in the final two years but the focus shifts towards preparing you for publishing your research.
You will attend workshops designed to help you to publish your work and to introduce you to the academic job market if applicable.
Year 4 – Writing the Dissertation
Year four will be focussed on completing the writing of your dissertation, and preparing for the viva voce examination, while continuing to pursue publications and/or academic positions where applicable.
The Faculty
The faculty has over 50 full-time members conducting state-of-the-art research in all key areas of finance. It is located within the City of London, the world's most prominent financial centre. No other PhD programme in Finance gives you such access to the City of London.
The unique and direct access to leading figures from the real world of finance enables us to blend the latest theory and thinking with the latest real-world experience and developments within the Executive PhD in Finance.
Accounting
Pawel Bilinski
Reader in Accounting, CeFARR Director, and Course Director, MSc Corporate Finance
Stefano De Cesaris
Senior Lecturer in Accounting
Cristina Grande-Herrera
Lecturer in Accounting
Jay Jung
Lecturer in Accounting
Sonia Konstantinidi
Lecturer in Accounting
Art Kraft
Reader in Accounting
Danielle Lyssimachou
Associate Professor in Accounting, and Course Director of BSc Accounting & Finance
Tim Martens
Lecturer in Accounting
Ivana Raonic
Senior Lecturer in Accounting and Finance
Andrew Yim
Senior Lecturer in Accounting
Asset Pricing and Investments
David Blake
Professor of Economics of Pensions
Giovanni Cespa
Professor of Finance
Andrew Clare
Associate Dean of Bayes Executive Education
Keith Cuthbertson
Professor of Finance
Simon Hayley
Lecturer in Finance
Aneel Keswani
Reader in Finance
Meziane Lasfer
Professor of Finance
Ian Marsh
Professor of Finance and Head of Faculty of Finance
Nick Motson
Senior Lecturer in Finance; and Associate Dean of MSc Programme
Dirk Nitzsche
Senior Lecturer in Finance, Course Director of the MSc Quantitative Finance and Financial Mathematics, and Associate Dean for International Relationships
Richard Payne
Professor of Finance, and Associate Dean for the Undergraduate Programme
Maik Schmeling
Professor of Finance
Steve Thomas
Professor of Finance, and Course Director for EMBA and Dubai MBA
Natasha Todorovic
Senior Lecturer in Investment Management
Banking and International Finance
Thorsten Beck
Professor of Banking and Finance
Barbara Casu
Professor of Banking, Course Director of MSc Banking and International Finance, and Director of the Executive PhD programme
Daniela Fabbri
Reader in Finance
Sonia Falconieri
Senior Lecturer in Finance, and Course Director for MSc in Finance
Angela Gallo
Lecturer in Finance
Professor of Finance
Richard Payne
Professor of Finance, and Associate Dean for the Undergraduate Programme
Kate Phylaktis
Professor of International Finance, and Director of the Emerging Markets Group
Francesc Rodriguez-Tous
Lecturer in Banking
Sotiris K. Staikouras
Senior Lecturer in Banking and Finance, and Course Director for Undergraduate Investment Analysis & Insurance and Real Estate Finance & Investment
Corporate Finance
Dyaran Bansraj
Lecturer in Finance
Giacinta Cestone
Reader in Finance, and Course Director of MSc International Accounting and Finance
Daniela Fabbri
Reader in Finance
Sonia Falconieri
Reader in Finance, and Course Director for MSc in Finance
Professor of Finance
Meziane Lasfer
Professor of Finance
Anh Tran
Professor of Finance
Francisco Urzúa
Reader in Finance
Econometrics
Roy Batchelor
Professor of Banking and Finance, and Associate Dean of MBA Programme
Ana-Maria Fuertes
Professor of Financial Econometrics
Malvina Marchese
Lecturer in Finance, and Course Director for Undergraduate Finance Degrees
Richard Payne
Professor of Finance, and Associate Dean for the Undergraduate Programme
Giovanni Urga
Professor of Finance and Econometrics, and Director of Centre for Econometric Analysis
Fa Wang
Lecturer in Financial Econometrics
Mathematical Finance
Laura Ballotta
Reader in Financial Mathematics
Aleš Cerny
Professor of Finance
Gianluca Fusai
Reader in Mathematical Finance
John Hatgioannides
Professor of Mathematical Finance
Real Estate Finance and Investment
Mark Andrew
Senior Lecturer in Real Estate Finance and Investment
Christopher Bourn
Senior Lecturer in Real Estate Finance and Investment
Tony Key
Director of MSc Real Estate Investment
Stephen Lee
Senior Lecturer in Real Estate Finance
Alex Moss
Senior Lecturer in Real Estate
William Rodney
Senior Lecturer in Valuation
Sotiris Tsolacos
Professor of Real Estate
Shipping, Trade and Finance
Amir Alizadeh
Professor of Shipping Economics and Finance
Costas Grammenos
Professor of Shipping, Trade and Finance, Founder and Head of International Centre for Shipping, Trade and Finance
Nikos Nomikos
Professor of Shipping and Risk Management, and Course Director of MSc Shipping, Trade & Finance
Nikolaos Papapostolou
Senior Lecturer in Shipping Finance
Panos Pouliasis
Senior Lecturer in Energy/Commodities Finance
Michael Tamvakis
Professor of Commodity Economics and Finance, and Course Director of MSc Energy, Trade and Finance
Emeritus
Forrest Capie
Professor (Emeritus) of Economic History
Alec Chrystal
Professor (Emeritus) of Money and Banking
David Citron
Professor (Emeritus) of Accounting
Stewart Hodges
Professor (Emeritus) of Finance
Mario Levis
Professor (Emeritus) of Finance
Anthony Neuberger
Professor of Finance
Geoffrey Wood
Professor (Emeritus) of Economics
Facilities and resources
PhD students on the Executive Programme have access to the state of the art research infrastructure, computing equipment, and extensive library resources.
Bayes Business School offers access to a wide range of databases, including:
- Bloomberg
- Thomson Reuters EIKON
- Factset
- WRDS
- DataStream
- Thomson One and many others.