Banking and Finance
The Banking and Finance track (B&F track) of the PhD in Management is oriented to study and do research on financial topics. Due to the academic experiences and the skills of the Faculty members and the Scientific committee, the B&F track pay a special attention on research areas that concern consumer finance, new media and financial communication, real estate finance, the governance of financial intermediaries, and neurofinance.
According with the aim of the whole PhD program, the aim of the B&F track is to select and invest in high potential PhD candidates in order to improve their research skills and develop new knowledge about specific financial areas of knowledge, by promoting high quality research outputs.
The B&F Track Coordinator is Professor Vincenzo Farina.
Track Schedule
The selection of PhD Students for the new academic year (new PhD cycle) usually starts in Spring time (see the section "Application and Selection procedure"), with exams (written and oral) during the Summer.
The activities of the PhD (for PhD Students of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year) start in September. The list of the activities for the full year (e.g. research methodology classes, seminars, conferences, other learning events) are planned at the beginning of each year. For the PhD Students of the 1st year the list of the events of the B&F track involves (on average) two full-day classes every two weeks from September to March.
PhD Students are invited to present the state of the art of their research work two times a year (usually in June and in December) during the so called "D-days". The D-days are equally distributed during the year with presentations at the end of the Fall term and at the end of the Spring term.
At the end of each academic year (July) the PhD Students have an official evaluation. In case of a negative evaluation the PhD Student will quit his/her program because will not be allowed to enroll for the next year.
At the end of the third year (October) the PhD Students who complete their thesis can be admitted to the final exam, where a committee made by three members will judge the research work.
Track Program Overview
The B&F track program is a three years program with a structure that is based on 180 credits (ECTS) distributed in research activities (120 credits), learning (50 credits), and other activities (10 credits).
First year
During the first year the PhD students are involved in learning activities such research methodology classes, seminars, summer schools, and other initiatives oriented to develop research skills. In the second half of the first year the PhD student has to identify a research question, with the support of a senior researcher that will play the role of Supervisor. At the end of the year a full research proposal has to be submitted to an evaluation committee. The proposal include the title of the thesis, and a full review of the literature that supports the proposal and stress the potential of the research project to advance the frontier of knowledge on a specific area of interest. The proposal includes the research methodology proposed to answer to the research question(s) and - in case of empirical analysis - discuss about the data that are supposed to be used (e.g. availability of the data, structure, arguments behind the decision to use these data, etc.).
The evaluation of the research proposal takes into account the ability of the PhD Student to organize a research proposal, the quality of the proposal, and the potential quality of the output. In case of a positive evaluation the PhD Student is admitted to the second year of the program. Whenever the research proposal will not be positively judged, the PhD Student will not be allowed to continue his/her Phd program.
Second year
The second year is dedicated to the implementation of the research proposal. During this year the PhD Student can attend further learning events (e.g. seminars, summer schools, etc.) and will participate to academic conferences in order to improve his/her knowledge about the research topic of the thesis. During the second year the PhD Student can spend as a visiting scholar a period in other universities or research centres in Italy or abroad. In the second half of the year the first outcomes of the research are expected (e.g. working papers, conference papers, etc.).
Third year
In the third year of the PhD program the PhD Students complete their research project, presenting the output of their research in academic events (e.g. seminars, conferences, etc.) and submit their outputs for publications in academic journals. At the end of the third year, the thesis has to be defended in front of a commission in a final exam.
During all the three years, the PhD Students have to present the state of the art of their research, stressing the improvements and new results achieved, in front of the Faculty and Scientific committee members in a "D-day". Three D-days every year are scheduled (Spring D-day, Summer D-day, Autumn D-day).