Doctoral study in Finance

When you undertake your doctorate in Finance at the University of Auckland Business School, you’ll join a high-calibre research community and have opportunities to publish papers, attend international conferences and develop a network in academia and industry.

Our researchers are currently examining how investors and firms allocate scarce resources over time. This covers corporate financial decision-making, investment analysis, portfolio management and financial instruments, and institutions and markets.

We invite research proposals in any of the following or related topics**:

• Investments, asset pricing, financial anomalies and machine learning applications in finance
• The cost of capital - The factors that determine the required rate of return on risky asset, topics related to capital budgeting, the valuation of firms and the regulation of pricing
• Initial public offerings of equity securities and seasoned equity offerings - The factors affecting under-pricing and the history of the under-pricing phenomenon
• Market microstructure - The impact of "market architecture" on the outcomes of the trading process
• Securities’ market regulation - The regulation of information disclosure in financial markets and its impact on the financial information environment
• Risk management - The identification and measurement of financial risks and the management of these risks using financial instruments
• Banking, financial institutions and regulation - Bank supervision and regulation; the global financial crisis

**Note: this is not an exhaustive list.

Pursue your topic with us and benefit from the support and supervision of internationally recognised researchers.

Professor Norman Wong (Head of Department): Research interests include financial accounting; capital markets and accounting information; governance issues in accounting; accounting policy choice; taxation and accounting; and research methods in accounting.

Professor Henk Berkman: Asset pricing, return predictability, forensic finance and investment management.

Dr Paul Geertsema: Asset pricing, return predictability, financial anomalies and machine learning applications in finance.

Dr Dulani Jayasuriya: Big data, international banking, social media, applications of machine learning in finance, applying deep learning techniques for socio-economic problem solving, blockchain applications in finance, crypto currencies.

Dr John Lee: Empirical asset pricing, return anomalies and beta estimation.

Dr Michelle Li: Corporate finance including CEO board involvement, CEO compensation, minority shareholder protection, and merger and acquisitions.

Dr Helen Lu: Asset pricing, machine learning and executive successions.

Professor Dimitris Margaritis: Corporate finance, financial econometrics, money and banking.

Associate Professor Alastair Marsden: Corporate valuation, cost of capital, impact of regulation on financial markets and equity issues.

• "Investor Decision Making" | Supervised by Professor Henk Berkman and Associate Professor Alastair Marsden
• "The Effect of Earnings Management Constraints on Management Earnings Forecasts: Evidence from Japan' | Supervised by Professor Norman Wong and Professor Steven Cahan
• "An Investigation into the Effects of Weight Constraints, Estimation Error and Taxes on the Benefits from International Diversification" | Supervised by Associate Professor Alastair Marsden and Dr John Lee
• "Essays on Mutual Funds" | Supervised by Professor Dimitris Margaritis and Dr John Lee

There are several scholarships you may be eligible for when you decide to pursue your doctoral studies in Finance.

University of Auckland Doctoral Scholarships

Barry Spicer and Owen G Glenn PhD Scholarship

Phone the University

• 923 7186 (within Auckland)
• 0800 61 62 63 (outside Auckland)
• +64 9 373 7513 (overseas)