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Home | Courses | Empirical Corporate Finance
Course

Empirical Corporate Finance

  • Teacher(s)
    Stefan Obernberger, Patrick Verwijmeren, Peter Koudijs, Tim Eisert
  • Research field
    Finance, Finance
  • Dates
    Period 5 - May 06, 2024 to Jul 05, 2024
  • Course type
    Field
  • Program year
    First
  • Credits
    3

Course description

Empirical corporate finance has traditionally studied the financing decisions of firms. More recently, the field has broadened into, among other things, labor economics, and household financial decision making.

This course provides an introduction into the empirical research into some of the fundamental themes in empirical corporate finance, as well as a number of newer topics. In each of the six lectures, we focus on a specific topic. We will discuss the state-of-the-art of the current literature and the methodological challenges faced by researchers to draw causal inferences from observational data.

During the course, students will work on an (empirical) research proposal.

Course topics:

1. The firm, the corporation and limited liability

2. Capital structure

3. Household finance

4. Security issuance

5. Payout policy

6. Labor and finance

Course literature

The course will not feature a final exam. Instead, students are expected to write a research proposal. This assignment is meant to help students develop their own research interests, but projects should be related to the topics in class, or to empirical corporate finance more generally. The research proposal should describe an empirical project. The proposal should focus on the research design: clearly define testable hypotheses and discuss the exact way to test these. The proposal does not have to feature any empirical results, although some data work as a proof of concept is advisable.

During each session, students present a number of papers in class. Presentations should focus on the papers’ main point and argument. Students will have to explain the story of the paper in their own words and critically assess the storyline, identification strategy, and contribution of the paper. Please plan to present for approximately 20 minutes. We will plan for 10 additional minutes of questions and clarifications during the presentation (seminar style). The presentation schedule will be published on Canvas at the start of the block.