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DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

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• Financial Economics

Financial Economics Ph.D.

Kellogg Program Description

Finance Department Website

The Department of Economics and the Finance Department in the Kellogg School of Management have a joint Ph.D. degree in Financial Economics.

The following requirements are in addition to, or further elaborate upon,  general degree requirements  and the policies on  Satisfactory Progress, Probation and Exclusion  of The Graduate School, and additional requirements for Satisfactory Academic Progress of the Department of Economics and the Finance Department.

Coursework Requirements

Total Required Units:  18

Other Ph.D. Degree Requirements

Examinations: satisfactory grades in each of the three core areas (microeconomics, macroeconomics, and econometrics); oral examination for approval of dissertation prospectus

  Research/Projects:  two research papers presented in the student seminar (ECON 501) or equivalent. Out of these, one paper is the second-year summer paper detailed below

  Finance Comprehensive Exam : Students must pass a Finance Competence Requirement. This can be done by achieving a 3.6 GPA across the six finance doctoral courses (FINC 585-1,2,3 and FINC 586-1,2,3), or by passing a comprehensive Finance exam. The Exam takes place at the beginning of the summer quarter of the second year, typically in June.

  Second-year Research Paper and Advisors: Students need to complete a research project to be presented to the department in the first week of September at the end of the summer quarter of the second year. The research project must be supervised by an individual faculty advisor (who can be the same as, or distinct from, the Academic Advisor) selected by the end of the winter quarter. The second-year advisor need not be the same person as the eventual main dissertation advisor.

  Ph.D. Dissertation:  original, independent research

  Final Evaluations:  oral dissertation defense

  Supervised Teaching Experience:  All doctoral students are required to act as a teaching assistant for at least one quarter. As part of these duties, the student must lead a weekly discussion section. Teaching experience is an essential part of graduate training. Foreign students must demonstrate acceptable English proficiency as prescribed by The Graduate School. Evaluations are made and kept as part of the students' record.

 There are two points of entry into the joint graduate program in Financial Economics.

• The first is a direct application when applying to graduate school at Northwestern. Admission requires approved by both the Economics and the Finance admissions committees.
• The second is for students initially enrolled in the Economics Ph.D. program to apply for entry after achieving candidacy. (Students initially enrolled in the Finance Ph.D. program can do the same.) Economics students should initiate the process by contacting the Economics Director of Graduate Studies immediately after candidacy. Applications must be approved by both the Economics and the Finance admissions committees. If the application is approved, the student initiates a degree transfer request to The Graduate School.

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• J. L. Kellogg School of Management

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• market INIS 100%
• risks INIS 70%
• Market Economics, Econometrics and Finance 65%
• Enterprise Economics, Econometrics and Finance 65%
• prices INIS 64%
• data INIS 58%
• Credit Economics, Econometrics and Finance 53%
• Price Economics, Econometrics and Finance 52%

Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

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Torben Andersen

• Finance - Professor, Nathan S and Mary P Sharp Professor
• Economics PhD Program
• Finance PhD Program

Person: Academic

Scott Ross Baker

• Finance - Associate Professor

Efraim Benmelech

• Finance - Professor, Director (Academic), Harold L Stuart Professor

Research Output

• 818 Article
• 99 Working paper
• 56 Review article
• 11 Comment/debate
• 11 Editorial
• 5 Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary
• 4 Chapter (peer-reviewed)
• 2 Short survey
• 2 Other contribution
• 1 Commissioned report
• 1 Conference contribution
• 1 Book/Film/Article review
• 1 Discussion paper

Research Output per year

Consumption smoothing or consumption binging? The effects of government-led consumer credit expansion in Brazil

Research output : Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

• credits 100%
• expansion 100%
• workers 100%
• brazil 100%
• Consumer Credit 100%

Diversity in Schools: Immigrants and the Educational Performance of U.S.-Born Students

• Educational Efficiency 100%
• Students 100%
• Schools 100%
• Diversity 100%
• Immigrants 100%

Financial returns to household inventory management

• management 100%
• households 100%
• inventories 100%
• Inventory Management 100%
• Return 100%

Data and Code for: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Among Ghana’s Rural Poor Is Effective Regardless of Baseline Mental Distress

Barker, N. (Creator), Bryan, G. (Creator), Karlan, D. (Creator), Ofori-Atta, A. (Creator) & Udry, C. R. (Creator), ICPSR - Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research, 2023

DOI : 10.3886/e164481 , https://www.openicpsr.org/openicpsr/project/164481/view

Data and Code for "The cost of being too patient"

Giuliano, P. (Creator) & Sapienza, P. (Creator), ICPSR - Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research, 2020

DOI : 10.3886/e118344v1 , https://www.openicpsr.org/openicpsr/project/118344/version/V1/view

Data and Code for: Shopping for Lower Sales Tax Rates

Baker, S. R. (Creator), Johnson, S. (Creator) & Kueng, L. (Creator), ICPSR - Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research, 2021

DOI : 10.3886/e119022v1 , https://www.openicpsr.org/openicpsr/project/119022/version/V1/view

• 22 Finished

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KABIR BANERJEE PREDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP AGREEMENT - Govind Gupta

Dillon, A. & Karlan, D.

The University of Chicago

10/1/23 → 10/1/25

Project : Research project

KABIR BANERJEE PREDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP AGREEMENT - Hasan Ahamed

10/1/22 → 9/30/24

The Weiss Fund KB Predoctoral Fellowship (Koadima)

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​​Pursuing a finance career? Use your past experiences as a springboard.

• Finance and Accounting

Welcome to the latest installment of our new series, “The Industry Ahead,” in which our faculty share the latest trends in hiring across a variety of career fields. This time we’re exploring the wide world of finance with clinical professor Jose Liberti, who teaches MBA courses at Kellogg and has extensive experience with financial services businesses. 

“When students tell me they’re thinking about finance,” Professor Liberti  says, “I ask them two questions: where are you coming from and where do you want to go?” 

Liberti is the right person to ask. Before becoming a professor, he worked as a financial advisor for Citibank, and now consults with a range of financial services businesses including private equity firms, financial advisory services and others including involvement with Point 72 Academy, an investment analyst training program. 

He uses his experience and insights to help students and others interested in finance careers aim for rewarding paths that make use of their past experience, whatever it may be. 

Diverse paths and destinations  

Liberti sees a lot of diversity among students interested in finance. “It might be that they have a background in finance itself,” he says. “Or something quantitative like engineering, or a mix of finance and consulting. It helps to know what they are building on.” 

While quantitative experience makes for a strong finance foundation, Kellogg students from all backgrounds successfully pursue and land finance jobs, including those with military, teaching, or nonprofit experience.  

No matter their background, students interested in finance must think about the industry and role that suits them best. “What are students attracted to?” Liberti says. “It used to be mostly about pursuing banking in New York City. But interests have become much more divergent in the last 10 to 15 years. "The past hyper-focus on pursuing high-salary jobs within the industry has diversified, and people are more interested in finding the right fit.” 

That’s evident in the wide range of targets for Kellogg students pursuing finance, as Liberti notes: “It might be corporate finance like M&A inside Boeing or Cisco. Or middle-market private equity. Or working with owners of a family enterprise to make investments after they sell their business.” Some students even learn how to raise funds to purchase and run a single business, including managing all finance activities.

A strategic, specialized field 

Liberti sees finance as an increasingly strategic, specialized field.  

“Some people are surprised by how strategic finance is,” he says. “In the first year of the MBA program, students begin to understand how much logic there is to it and become interested in learning more about what makes it work.” 

What makes it work, these days, seems to be specialization. “Demand is increasing for finance specialists,” Liberti says.  

The good news is that most people pursuing finance can use their past to shape their future professional role, including specialization. “It’s about levering up what you’ve already done,” Liberti says. “If you were an oil-and-gas engineer or worked in the music industry, for example, you can come to Kellogg and dial your focus on corporate finance, which would allow you become a very hot commodity working for a private equity firm that invests in oil or the music industry.” In a similar way, students with past roles focused on climate, policy or sustainability can focus on impact investing at Kellogg to shape their post-MBA career. 

Finance is a popular destination for Kellogg students, and incoming MBA students wanting to switch into this industry can start their learning journey even before they arrive on campus. The Career Management Center offers a wealth of programming and resources, including a summer alumni panel just for the finance industry, interviewing and an in-depth career training via the Launchpad pre-MBA course. 

“Don’t kill your past,” Liberti advises. “Use your expertise to increase your finance job prospects.”

The Kellogg advantage 

Kellogg enables anyone pursuing finance to gain key skills and career opportunities. Among key finance-related offerings are: 

• A dedicated finance major. Kellogg offers many majors and pathways  in its MBA programs. The finance major  is tailored for students wanting a fundamental knowledge base and practical tools that are essential for careers in the field. Students combine these classes with other essential coursework in data analytics and negotiations to create a powerful foundation for finance careers. 
• Specialized finance pathways that let students go deeper into specific topic areas, including venture capital and private equity , asset management , and growth and scaling .  
• Experiential learning opportunities offering hands-on experience outside the classroom. Kellogg offers a wide variety of experiential courses  in many subject areas, including finance. Lab courses in PE, VC and asset management immerse students in a client project with a real company, and the annual PE/VC Conference . 
• Student-led clubs that bring together peers interested in finance careers and connect them with companies and alumni. Groups at Kellogg  include the Investment Banking and Capital Markets Club, Corporate Finance Club, Fintech club, Private Equity Club, Investment Management Club and many others. 
• Case competitions, which let students take their hands-on experiences in finance even further by working with a team of classmates to solve a challenge. Kellogg teams participate in and win top competitions, and a Kellogg group took first place this year in the Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC), the world’s top VC competition for MBAs.  
• A deep and broad alumni network that invests in you . Many Kellogg alumni work in finance roles, with the highest concentrations in Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Of those, a large segment work in private equity or venture capital. 
• Career guidance tailored for you. The Career Management Center  offers unlimited one-on-one coaching to students, a dedicated research specialist to help you chart your professional path, and resources that extend even after graduation. For students particularly interested in careers in finance, clubs and the CMC offer workshops and learning tools just for finance interviewing. Students can also go on company treks to firms in PE, VC and investment banking. 

Read next 

Curious about what an MBA in finance at Kellogg can do for you? Follow the links here to read about students and alumni in finance and discover the latest research from our finance faculty . Or, explore our degree programs  to find the right fit for you.  

• Student Resources

MBA + MS Design Innovation (MMM Program) at the McCORMICK SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING and KELLOGG SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

• Inside Our Program

Bridging the Language Gap

Four mmm students developed the instaenglish app that earned top prize in the annual kellogg venture challenge..

When Yutaro Nishiyama (MMM ‘25) was a high schooler in Japan, he had the 16th best score on the country’s English exam. Yet when he came to the United States, he found himself struggling to speak the language.

That struggle became the inspiration for InstaEnglish, an app he and three classmates developed in their free time. The app recently took first place in the Kellogg Venture Challenge, a competition where graduate students pitch projects to a panel of high-profile judges for cash and in-kind prizes.

Nishiyama, Théry Badin (MMM ‘25), Yutaka Kawabata (MMM ‘25), and Evan Lai (MMM ‘25) are all students in Northwestern's MBA + MS in Design Innovation (MMM) program — a dual-degree program between Northwestern Engineering and the Kellogg School of Management. 

“Balancing an in-semester internship, academic commitments, and the responsibilities of being a father to three children was no small feat,” Nishiyama said. “Despite these hurdles, our unwavering commitment to the project and to each other has been the cornerstone of our progress.”

That progress is massive. The four students developed and launched the iOS app in just three months.

English education in Japan places a heavy emphasis on reading comprehension, Nishiyama said, leaving a gap in speaking skills that led to his personal struggles. InstaEnglish aims to bridge that gap by turning English vocabulary words into active vocabulary that can immediately be used in conversation.  

In just the first three months after its release, the app earned more than 3,000 downloads and 100 paying users. Those numbers pale in comparison to the quartet’s long-term goals.

“We aim to acquire 10,000 paying users and generate an annual revenue of $1 million before we conclude our degrees,” Lai said. “We also plan to expand our services beyond Japanese and English within one year.”

All four of the app’s creators are non-native English speakers. Each had a different role in the app’s development. Nishiyama focused on technology, while Lai worked on the user interface and design. Kawabata handled strategy and content, while Badin dealt with finance.

All said the MMM program was central to their ability to develop the app in such a compressed time period alongside their other responsibilities.

“The MMM program provides the perfect opportunity to delve into human-centered design firsthand,” Lai said. “This learning is experiential.”

Badin pointed to the program’s Research, Design, Build (RDB) course as particularly important to their success.

“While our team came in with experience with product design and development, the tools we learned from RDB gave us a blueprint to methodically and empathetically explore our user’s experience,” Badin said. “It was formative and valuable in training us to centralize the user.”

Human-centered design is a product development theory that says the method to develop the most useful products and services starts with the end user at the center. Only through in-depth research on those user’s pain points can great products make it to the market.

Winning the Kellogg Venture Challenge is an important milestone in InstaEnglish’s development – and in the lives of its developers. The exposure opened doors to venture capitalists and angel investors who might be willing to help in the app’s development and expansion.

In March, the team was named to the AI Innovation Lab 2024 spring cohort at 1871, a Chicago-based technology incubator. Nishiyama was also chosen as one of 30 delegates from a pool of 1,400 social entrepreneurs for the 2024 Global Engagement Summit.

For Nishiyama, the early accolades confirm a need for the app.

“Winning the Kellogg Venture Challenge was a validation that our vision extends far beyond the borders of Japan and holds potential on a global scale,” he said. “The fact that judges, presumably with little prior connection to Japan, awarded us the top position reinforced our resolve to attract investors and team members from diverse backgrounds and nationalities.

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Academic Catalog

2023-2024 Edition

Degree Types: PhD

The Finance doctoral program provides students with rigorous training in finance, economics, mathematics and statistics. These tools, plus opportunities for supervised independent research, enable students to make their own contributions to the understanding of financial markets and institutions that lead to productive research careers.

The Finance doctoral program trains students to apply empirical methods and theoretical tools to advance our understanding of how financial markets and institutions work, and how they may contribute to economic development.

The program aims to produce scholars who develop rigorous and creative research in finance and economics. Students are exposed to a variety of research methods in their coursework, and interact closely with faculty as they develop their own research projects. A distinctive characteristic of our program is its close ties with the Department of Economics, which are fostered by joint seminars, mutual advising of students, and frequent collaboration on research projects. The academic interests of the finance faculty also span a very broad range of topics in finance, from the role of culture and trust in financial markets to the identification of jump risk premiums. The breadth of knowledge and interests of our faculty create an environment that encourages students to conduct advanced research in novel aspects of the field.   

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Finance Courses

FINC 499-0 Independent Study (1 Unit)  

Students who have established superior records and wish to study some significant phase of finance in more depth than is provided in regular courses may register for independent study with a selected instructor. Permission of the instructor and department are required.

FINC 520-1 Time Series Analysis (1 Unit)  

The specification, estimation, and testing of dynamic models involving economic time series present a host of unique statistical problems requiring the use of specialized inference procedures. This course provides an overview of the most important of them. The focus will be on results most relevant for applications, with the various econometric techniques illustrated through problems in both macroeconomics and finance.

FINC 584-0 Introduction to Econometrics (1 Unit)  

This course provides an introduction to graduate level econometrics. The first part of the course introduces basic probability and statistical tools that are essential for econometric analysis. The second part of the course covers basic econometric techniques for estimation and hypothesis testing, which are of direct use in various applications in economics and finance. The focus will be on results most relevant for practical applications rather than formal proofs of theorems, with the various econometric techniques illustrated through problems in both economics and finance.

FINC 585-1 Asset Pricing I (1 Unit)  

A doctoral-level course that offers an in-depth introduction to competitive asset pricing theory: arbitrage pricing, equilibrium pricing and optimal consumption/portfolio choice. Models are developed for a finite information tree, but from an advanced perspective that motivates and builds intuition toward continuous-time modeling.

FINC 585-2 Asset Pricing II (1 Unit)  

This course covers recent developments in asset pricing theory, placing emphasis on the link between financial markets and the real economy. The topics covered include: models of portfolio choice, general equilibrium models of risk and return, and models with financial frictions.

FINC 585-3 Asset Pricing III (1 Unit)  

This course covers topics in the empirical asset pricing literature with an emphasis on recent developments. Topics include: Latent factor models; GMM theory and applications in finance; return predictability; performance evaluation; affine asset pricing models; Estimation of asset risk premia; estimation of volatility and jump risks from low/high frequency data; empirical derivatives pricing using parametric and nonparametric methods.

FINC 586-1 Corporate Finance I (1 Unit)  

This course introduces students to theories of corporate financing and investment decisions; optimal financial contracting and security design; financial intermediation; and financial crises. Throughout we study the effects of incentive problems and asymmetric information.

FINC 586-2 Corporate Finance II (1 Unit)  

This course provides a theoretical and empirical treatment of major topics in empirical corporate finance, including: investment decisions, capital structure, corporate governance, and law and finance.

FINC 586-3 Corporate Finance III (1 Unit)  

This course provides a theoretical and empirical treatment of major topics in empirical corporate finance, including financial contracting; banking, securitization, and financial regulation: household finance and macroeconomics; entrepreneurship and venture capital.

FINC 590-0 Research (3 Units)  

Independent investigation of selected problems pertaining to thesis or dissertation. May be repeated for credit.

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AI Tool Instantly Assesses Self-Harm Risk

Behavioral economics principles allow researchers to predict suicidal thoughts and behaviors, the problem.

Suicidality hit a new record high in the US in 2022.

A new assessment tool able to predict whether participants exhibited suicidal thoughts and behaviors using a quick and simple combination of variables.

Why it Matters

Determining who is most at risk for self-harm is a crucial but difficult task that must be done quickly.

Professor Aggelos Katsaggelos, PhD student Shamal Shashi Lalvani

Trigger Warning: Sensitive Content

A new assessment tool that leverages powerful artificial intelligence was able to predict whether participants exhibited suicidal thoughts and behaviors using a quick and simple combination of variables.

Developed by researchers at Northwestern University, the University of Cincinnati (UC), Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard School of Medicine, the system focuses on a simple picture-ranking task along with a small set of contextual/demographic variables rather than extensive psychological data. 

The tool was on average 92 percent effective at predicting four variables related to suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

“A system that quantifies the judgment of reward and aversion provides a lens through which we may understand preference behavior,” said first author Shamal Shashi Lalvani, a PhD student in electrical engineering at Northwestern Engineering. “By using interpretable variables describing human behavior to predict suicidality, we open an avenue toward a more quantitative understanding of mental health and make connections to other disciplines such as behavioral economics.”

The study,  published in the journal Nature Mental Health , concludes that a small set of behavioral and social measures play a key role in predicting suicidal thoughts and behaviors. The current work details the components of a tool that could be an app for medical professionals, hospitals, or the military to provide assessment of who is most at risk of self-harm.

“It’s reported we have about 20 suicides daily among veterans in the US, and a salient number of students. We all can cite statistics to how the American medical system is at a breaking point. I wish we’d had this technology sooner. The data strongly argues it would change outcomes,” said Hans Breiter, contact PI for the study, and a professor in computer science and biomedical engineering at UC. 

“People have developed good techniques with big data,” Breiter said, “but we have problems interpreting the meaning of many predictions based on big data. Having a small number of variables grounded in mathematical psychology appears to get around this issue and is needed if current machine learning is ever going to approach the issue of artificial general intelligence.”

Data was collected from surveys completed in 2021 by 4,019 participants ages 18 to 70 across the United States. Identities of participants were protected and not shared with researchers and participants gave informed consent.

Participants were asked to rank a random sequence of 48 pictures on a seven-point like-to-dislike scale of 3 to -3 in six categories: sports, disasters, cute animals, aggressive animals, nature, and adults in bathing suits. Researchers also collected a limited set of demographics about age, sex assigned at birth, race or ethnicity, highest education level achieved, and handedness. 

“The usage of a picture-rating task may seem simple but understanding individual preferences and how one evaluates reward and aversion plays a large role in shaping personality and behavior,” said co-PI for the study and co-senior author Aggelos Katsaggelos , the Joseph Cummings Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering and director of the AI in Multimedia-Image and Video Processing Lab at Northwestern.

“We find that our results in predicting suicidality exceed typical methods of measurement without using extensive electronic health records or other forms of big data,” Katsaggelos said. 

Along with the picture ratings, participants completed a limited set of mental health questions and were asked to rank perceived loneliness on a five-point scale. 

When the data was plugged into an artificial intelligence system developed by Northwestern and the University of Cincinnati, the software was able to predict four measures of suicidal thoughts and behaviors: passive suicidal ideation (desire without a plan); active ideation (current and specific thoughts); planning for suicide; and planning coping strategies to prevent self-harm.

Researchers noted that respondents in other countries could have unique cultural influences that might affect prediction success, although race and gender effect were the least predictive of any measures used. Another potential limitation, the researchers said is the surveys were self-reported rather than through clinical assessments, adding that it’s difficult to see how a prospective study of suicide might be performed. Lastly, the cohort was sampled during the COVID-19 pandemic at a time that has seen higher-than-normal rates of loneliness and self-harm.

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Geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude) define a position on the Earth’s surface. Coordinates are angular units. The canonical form of latitude and longitude representation uses degrees (°), minutes (′), and seconds (″). GPS systems widely use coordinates in degrees and decimal minutes, or in decimal degrees.

Latitude varies from −90° to 90°. The latitude of the Equator is 0°; the latitude of the South Pole is −90°; the latitude of the North Pole is 90°. Positive latitude values correspond to the geographic locations north of the Equator (abbrev. N). Negative latitude values correspond to the geographic locations south of the Equator (abbrev. S).

Longitude is counted from the prime meridian ( IERS Reference Meridian for WGS 84) and varies from −180° to 180°. Positive longitude values correspond to the geographic locations east of the prime meridian (abbrev. E). Negative longitude values correspond to the geographic locations west of the prime meridian (abbrev. W).

UTM or Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate system divides the Earth’s surface into 60 longitudinal zones. The coordinates of a location within each zone are defined as a planar coordinate pair related to the intersection of the equator and the zone’s central meridian, and measured in meters.

Elevation above sea level is a measure of a geographic location’s height. We are using the global digital elevation model GTOPO30 .

Elektrostal , Moscow Oblast, Russia