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FIN 603 – Empirical Finance

General Information

Students wishing to take Empirical Finance must apply for a place in this course. The application process is described below. 

The course provides students with an understanding of important empirical methods and their application in finance. It covers topics in asset pricing, corporate finance, and market microstructure. Students will learn to perform empirical analysis using the software package Stata. They are expected to acquire, before the course commences, a level of Stata competency comparable to that taught in the Stata Tutorial each semester. The course enables students to plan and carry out empirical research in finance on their own and prepares for an empirical seminar or master thesis in the finance area. Part of the course consists of the practical application of the methods learned in the lecture to various case studies.

Learning Outcomes:

  • A sound understanding of empirical methods and their underlying assumptions
  • Students will be able to choose appropriate methods for given empirical problems and apply them in an efficient way
  • The case studies enable the students to develop basic programming skills in Stata

Organisation

The course consists of a lecture and several exercise sessions that deal with the application of the contents of the lecture in various case studies. The lectures provide the conceptual and empirical background and the cases apply the concepts to empirical research examples.

Further Information

  • Faculty

    Lecture

    Prof. Dr. Erik Theissen

    Prof. Dr. Erik Theissen

    Chair Holder
    Chair of Finance

    Exercise Session

    Dr. Stefan Scharnowski

    Dr. Stefan Scharnowski

    Postdoc
    University of Mannheim
    Business School
    L 9, 1–2 – Room 201
    68161 Mannheim
    Consultation hour(s):
    by appointment
    Chen Lin, M.Sc.

    Chen Lin, M.Sc.

    PhD Student
    University of Mannheim
    Business School
    L 9, 1–2 – Room 402
    68161 Mannheim
    Fax: +49 621 181-1519
    E-mail: chelinmail-mail.uni-mannheim.de
    Web: Personal Website
    Consultation hour(s):
    by appointment
    Mengnan Wu, M.Sc.

    Mengnan Wu, M.Sc.

    PhD Student
    University of Mannheim
    Business School
    L 9, 1–2 – Room 401
    68161 Mannheim
    Phone: +49 621 181-1786
    Fax: +49 621 181-1519
    E-mail: mengnan.wumail-uni-mannheim.de
    Consultation hour(s):
    by appointment
    Can Yilanci, M.Sc.

    Can Yilanci, M.Sc.

    PhD Student
    University of Mannheim
    Business School
    L 9, 1–2 – Room 202
    68161 Mannheim
    Phone: +49 621 181-1526
    Fax: +49 621 181-1519
    E-mail: cyilancimail-mail.uni-mannheim.de
    Consultation hour(s):
    by appointment
  • Time & Venue

    ​​​​​​Lecture

    • Tuesday, 13:45h – 17:00h from February 13 to April 16, 2024.
    • The lectures take place in O226–28. The lecture will only take place in person. 

    Exercise sessions

    • Tuesday, 15:30h – 17:00h on March 12, April 16, May 07, and May 28, 2024
    • The exercise sessions take place in O226–28. The exercise sessions will only take place in person. Please bring your laptop.

    Preliminary Case Study Schedule

    • Two weeks to solve the Case Study
    • Case Study Hand-Out always on the day of lecture, three weeks before the exercise
    • Case Study Hand-In always on the day of lecture, one week before the excercise

    We will inform you in case there are any changes to the new schedule. Information about the time schedule is available on Portal2 under the course title “FIN 603 Empirical Finance”.

  • Language

    The course is taught in English. All materials and the exam will be in English.

  • Assessment

    Your final grade will consist of a final exam (45%), case-studies write-ups (45%) and participation in the exercise sessions (10%). If the course is offered virtually, participation does not count towards the final grade. You can hand in your case write-ups individually or in groups of up to three students. We strongly recommend working in groups of three.

  • Registration & Access

    Register for the course via Portal2 (January 15 – February 08, 2024)

    Note: Even if this is a mandatory course for you (MMBR), you should register for the course.

    Selection Criteria:

    • Applicants <= Slots: Every student is accepted.
    • Applicants > Slots: Assignment by centralized procedure.
  • Stata-Tutorial

    Participation in the course FIN 604 – Stata in Finance at the beginning of the semester or acquisition of equivalent knowledge is expected. Course materials of the Stata course will be provided.

  • Plagiarism Policy

    Please note that we will regard any event of copying, where identical write-ups are turned in or where write-ups overlap or coincide with documents in the public domain, as a breach of the code regulating exams (“Prüfungsordnung”). At a minimum, all group members will receive a failing grade on the respective homework, regardless of whether they provided the original, copied from the original, or had somebody else copying from the original. We keep electronic copies of case write-ups for this purpose (see below).

    When presenting your transcript at our secretary's office, you will be required to sign our plagiarism policy. We are commited to fair-play and will therefore treat any incidence of plagiarism as cheating. There will be absolutely no exceptions to this rule. It is your responsibility to hand in only work which is in compliance with our plagiarism rules. If in doubt, contact us before handing in your work.

  • Teaching Evaluations