PhD in Finance
As a finance PhD student at Chicago Booth, you’ll join a community that encourages you to think independently.
Taking courses at Booth and in the university’s Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics, you will gain a solid foundation in all aspects of economics and finance--from the factors that determine asset prices to how firms and individuals make financial decisions.
Following your coursework, you will develop your research in close collaboration with faculty and your fellow students. Reading groups and workshops with faculty, student-led brown-bag seminars, and conferences provide many opportunities to learn from others.
The Finance PhD Program also offers the Joint Program in Financial Economics, which is run by Chicago Booth and the Department of Economics in the Division of the Social Sciences at the University of Chicago.
Our Distinguished Finance Faculty
Chicago Booth finance faculty are leading researchers who also build strong relationships with doctoral students, collaborate on new ideas, and connect students with powerful career opportunities.
Alumni Success
Graduates of the Stevens Doctoral Program go on to successful careers in prominent institutions of higher learning, leading financial institutions, government, and beyond.
Shohini Kundu, MBA '20, PhD '21
Assistant Professor of Finance
UCLA Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles
Shohini Kundu's research lies in financial intermediation and macroeconomics, security design and externalities of financial contracts, and emerging market finance. Her dissertation area is in finance.
Jane (Jian) Li, PhD '21
Assistant Professor of Business, Finance Division
Columbia Business School, Columbia University
Jane's research lies at the intersection of macroeconomics and finance. She is particularly interested in how financial intermediaries affect the real economy and how different types of financial institutions can contribute to financial instability. Her dissertation area is in financial economics.
Spotlight on Research
The pages of Chicago Booth Review regularly highlight the research findings of finance faculty and PhD students.
A Brief History of Finance and My Life at Chicago
Chicago Booth’s Eugene F. Fama describes the serendipitous events that led him to Chicago, and into his monumental career in academic finance.
A Brief History of Finance and My Life at Chicago
Climate-Policy Pronouncements Boost 'Brown' Stocks
It was a dramatic example of how White House communications on climate policy can affect asset prices, according to Washington University in St. Louis’s William Cassidy, a recent graduate of Booth’s PhD Program.
Climate-Policy Pronouncements Boost 'Brown' Stocks
With Business Loans Harder to Get, Private Debt Funds Are Stepping In
It’s become harder for many prospective borrowers to access capital. But private debt funds have stepped in to fill the gap, according to Joern Block (Trier University), Booth PhD candidate Young Soo Jang, Booth’s Steve Kaplan, and Trier’s Anna Schulze.
With Business Loans Harder to Get, Private Debt Funds Are Stepping In
Too Many 'Shadow Banks' Can Limit Overall Access to Credit
While go-betweens can benefit the broader economy by smoothing the flow of credit, there are now probably too many links in the credit chain, argue Zhiguo He and Jian Li (Booth PhD graduate).
Too Many 'Shadow Banks' Can Limit Overall Access to CreditA Network of Support
Chicago Booth is home to several interdisciplinary research centers that offer funding for student work, host workshops and conferences, and foster a strong research community.
Fama-Miller Center for Research in Finance
Tasked with pushing the boundaries of research in finance, the Fama-Miller Center provides institutional structure and support for researchers in the field.
Becker Friedman Institute for Economics
Bringing together researchers from the entire Chicago economics community, the Becker Friedman Institute fosters novel insights on the world’s most difficult economic problems.
Center for Research in Security Prices
CRSP maintains one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive stock market databases. Since 1963, it has been a valued resource for businesses, government, and scholars.
Initiative on Global Markets
Enhancing the understanding of business and financial market globalization, the IGM positions Chicago Booth as a thought leader in the understanding of ever-changing markets and improves financial and economic decision-making around the world.
George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State
Dedicated to examining issues at the intersection of politics and the economy, the Stigler Center supports research by PhD students and others who are interested in the political, economic, and cultural obstacles to better working markets.
Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation
Committed to making the world more equitable and sustainable, the Rustandy Center works to solve complex social and environmental problems. The center’s student support includes fellowships, research funding, and networking opportunities.
The PhD Experience at Booth
For Itzhak Ben-David, PhD ’08, the PhD Program in Finance was an exploratory journey.
Itzhak Ben-David, ’08: 00:03
For me, the PhD Program was an exploratory journey. It was about discovering what was interesting for me, what will be interesting for other economists. It was about discovering something new about the world. Much of the PhD Program experience is to explore and to wonder a bit and to just think and expose yourself to new ideas and new disciplines. Back then, this was 2006, I found a billboard that said, "If you buy this house, we're going to give you a free car or $20,000 in cash." And this seemed really odd to me. What I realized that was going on, that this was part of a borrower fraud and the idea was that seller and the buyer will agree on a higher price on a house and the lender would be under the impression that the collateral worth more than it really is.
Itzhak Ben-David, ’08: 00:58
So I started to investigate other parts of the real estate food chain. What I saw is that in many parts of this chain, there were incentives in place pushing the intermediaries or the different economic agents to inflate prices. It's not always a bubble, but oftentimes it points out behavior that is not consistent with our textbook behavior. I had the dream team of advisors, Toby Moskowitz, Dick Taylor, Steve Levitt, and Erik Hurst. Each one of them contributed in different way to my dissertation and brought different ideas, brought different aspects. There is no better place of doing research than in Booth. It's really a hub of academic activity. There is no important work that doesn't pass at Chicago before being published. It's really an intellectual home. When you meet people and you know that they are from Booth, you can see the difference in their thinking.
Current Finance Students
PhD students in finance study a wide range of topics, including the behavior and determinants of security prices, the financing and investment decisions of firms, corporate governance, and the management and regulation of financial institutions. They go on to careers at prestigious institutions, from Yale University to the International Monetary Fund.
Rahul Chauhan
Ching-Tse Chen
Aditya Dhar
Mihir Gandhi
Huan (Bianca) He
Agustin Hurtado
Young Soo Jang
Piotr Langer
Jessica Li
Edoardo Marchesi
Rayhan Momin
Lauren Mostrom
Meichen Qian
Francisco Ruela
Sixun Tang
Hui (Judy) Yue
Booth also offers joint degrees. Learn more about the current students in our Joint Program in Financial Economics.
Program Expectations and Requirements
The Stevens Program at Booth is a full-time program. Students generally complete the majority of coursework and examination requirements within the first two years of studies and begin work on their dissertation during the third year.
For details, see General Examination Requirements by Area in the Stevens Program Guidebook below.