Course Topics
Databases for finance (Topics: Key financial databases; Data extraction techniques for empirical finance research) Event Study Methodology (Topics: Impact of corporate events; Analysis of credit rating changes) Corporate Governance (Topics: Board structure; Executive compensation; Shareholder rights and firm performance) Culture and finance (Topics: Epidemiological approach) Banking theory (Topics: Introduction to Financial Intermediation, Monitoring, Information Production and Credit Markets, Liquidity Provision and Runs, Capital Regulation and Regulatory arbitrage) Banking and green financing (Topics: Forming empirical strategies from conflicting theories; Natural experiments and exogenous shocks; Matching) Corporate taxation, focusing on the role of taxes in shaping business decisions. Market microstructure: from Market Making to High Frequency Trader (Topic: market microstructure, trading cost, market liquidity, market orders, financial market efficiency)

Teaching format
Frontal lectures

Educational objectives
The courses aim to train researchers with strong quantitative and theoretical skills, capable of analyzing economic and financial phenomena. Candidates’ dissertations are expected to adhere to the highest standards of scientific rigor and to demonstrate innovative features that make them suitable for publication in leading international peer-reviewed journals. The programme therefore seeks to contribute to the international scientific debate in economics and finance. To this end, candidates will be encouraged to employ state-of-the-art methodologies and to adopt a multidisciplinary approach. The advanced training provided by the programme, together with the research methods required to complete the dissertation, prepares candidates both for an academic career and for high-level professional positions involving policy analysis and policymaking.

Additional educational objectives and learning outcomes
We will discuss research within the sub-fields of financial intermediation, banking, corporate finance, corporate governance, accounting, and financial markets. The course is organized around published papers but also introduces commonly used methodologies in empirical finance & accounting research and the main databases to obtain data. Appropriate methods will be linked to given research questions for several major current topic areas in finance: Green finance, culture and finance, board selection, the impact of corporate events on stock performance, bank runs and financial stability, market microstructure. We will review the proxies or measurements used to capture fundamental accounting constructs and to consider the advantages and disadvantages of the various operational proxies. Thus, the seminar examines the construct validity of prevalent proxies used to capture fundamental accounting constructs in the accounting literature. Throughout the course we will spend time talking about how to come up with (good) theoretical and empirical ideas. Since contemporary work in finance and accounting builds upon the underlying economics of a given situation, we will discuss how to think creatively about identification, endogeneity, and instruments. We will also discuss how to dissect and critique academic research. This is a small research-oriented course, so it is crucial that all participants read the papers in advance and jointly participate in class discussions. If you find yourself particularly interested in one or more of the fields, and you want to develop it into your dissertation field, just ask the professor who can provide you with many more reading references.

Assessment
Based on take-home assignments, take-home exams, and presentations.

Evaluation criteria
The take-home assignments, take-home exams, and presentations will be awarded marks based on how well the argumentation made by the Ph.D. student links to the course concepts.

Required readings

Papers to be shared by the instructors

Further information
6 hours -Prof. Claudia Curi, 6 hours Dr. Luca Menicacci, 10 hours Prof. Florian Kiesel, 6 hours Prof. Linus Siming, 10 hours Prof. Flavio Bazzana