Finance
Our world-class researchers engage with and disseminate research to practitioners, policy-makers and academic colleagues to develop a more robust financial system. Our faculty regularly publish in the top financial economics journals and participate actively in world-renowned academic, industry and policy conferences.
A number of high-level academic and practitioner conferences take place at the Business School, offering students, alumni and faculty the opportunity to network and shape the future of finance. Our well-cited academic research has international impact, while our students are regularly placed in top finance jobs in the private sector, international organisations and academia.
Finance welcomes applications from excellent candidates with a background in quantitative subjects including mathematics, statistics, economics and finance. As a PhD student in the Department of Finance, you will work closely with faculty members and are encouraged to think creatively. The programme offers specialist courses to build your knowledge of theory and technical skills and equip you with the tools to carry out high quality theoretical and empirical research.
Research areas
The world-class research undertaken by our finance faculty spans four core themes – Innovation and Asset Pricing, Corporate Finance, Finance and Risk Management, and Financial Analysis – engaging with and disseminating research to practitioners, policy-makers and academic colleagues to develop a more robust financial system. Research has covered derivative pricing and hedging, quantitative risk management and asset allocation, financial econometrics, stochastic volatility modelling, credit risk modelling, catastrophe risk analysis, M&A and private equity.
Research Centres and Partnerships
The Department of Finance houses research centres that undertake advanced study in specialist areas and include the The Brevan Howard Centre for Financial Analysis, where Imperial College London finance faculty collaborate with external academics and industry professionals to develop cutting edge research, influencing global industry practice and public policy.
The Centre dramatically enhances Imperial College Business School’s expertise in financial economics and strengthens ties with other disciplines, including engineering and computational finance.
The Department also works collaboratively with faculty in other departments at Imperial College London such as Mathematics, Computing and Medicine, on research including the Grantham Institute for Climate Change, whose research aims are for a sustainable, resilient, zero-carbon future and the London Graduate School in Mathematical Finance, a consortium of researchers from institutions across London.
Other Centres within the Business School include Financial Technology, which acts as a hub for the interdisciplinary research that is needed to develop innovations, reveal insights and answer questions; bringing together the activities of academics, startup companies, established industry and governmental organisations. Climate Finance and Investment, works to unlock solutions within capital markets to address the challenges posed by global climate change.
Doctoral Theses in Finance
| Name | Thesis title | Supervisors(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Kumushoy Abduraimova | Contagion and Tail Risk in Complex Financial Networks | Professor Rustam Ibragimov, Professor Franklin Allen |
| Daniela Alifano | Essays in Finance | Professor Walter Distaso, Professor Rustam Ibragimov |
| Adelina Barbalau | Essays in Financial Economics | Professor Franklin Allen, Dr Savi Sundaresan |
| Davide Benedetti | Essays on corporate risk management and insurance | Dr Enrico Biffis, Dr Mario Ghossoub |
| Robert Czech | Essays in Empirical Market Microstructure | Professor Marcin Kacperczyk |
| Hsuan Fu | International monetary policy and Stock Market Returns | Dr Pasquale Della Corte, Professor Marcin Kacperczyk |
| Edward Golosov | The Term Structure of Risk Premia with Heterogeneous Preferences and Beliefs | Dr Harjoat Bhamra, Professor Walter Distaso |
| James Grant | Trading Strategies in Future Markets | Professor Walter Distaso, Dr Enrico Biffis |
| Mobeen Iqbal | Essays in Financial Economics | Professor David Miles, Dr Chris Hansman |
| Engin Iyidogan | Essays on the Economics of Cryptocurrencies | Professor Robert Kosowski, Dr Andrei Kirilenko |
| Oleg Komarov | Empirical Asset Pricing in High-frequency Markets | Professor Walter Distaso |
| Aleksejs Krecetovs | Essays on Empirical Asset Pricing | Professor Walter Distaso, Dr Pasquale Della Corte |
| Caterina Lepore | Essays in Financial Economics | Dr Enrico Biffis |
| Jian Xun Li | Three Essays in Financial Econometrics | Professor Walter Distaso |
| Valentina Lorusso | Market Making and Dealer Markets | Professor Gilles Chemla, Dr Pasquale Della Corte |
| Niklas Neumann | Post-crisis Banking in the US | Professor Marcin Kacperczyk, Professor Robert Kosowski |
| Valentina Raponi | Cross-sectional Methods for Empirical Asset Pricing | Professor Paolo Zaffaroni |
| Jialu Shen | Lifecycle Portfolio Choice | Professor Alex Michaelides, Professor Rustam Ibragimov |
| Yining Elaine Shi | Media Content and Credit Risk: Empirical Analyses Based on Credit Default Swap Market | Dr Enrico Biffis, Dr Lara Cathcart |
| Jingjing Ariel Sun | Three Essays in Financial Economics: Systemic Risk; Pension Economics and Income Inequality | Professor Rustam Ibragimov, Dr Enrico Biffis |
| Tianyu Wang | Essays in Empirical Asset Pricing | Professor Robert Kosowski, Dr Pasquale Della Corte |
| Daren Wei | Macro-prudential Policy and Asset Pricing | Dr Harjoat Bhamra, Professor Paolo Zaffaroni |
| Yangshen Yang | Essays on Imperfect Information in Financial Markets | Professor Gilles Chemla |
| Chao Zhang | Theses on Investment and Portfolio Management of Hedge Funds Based on 13F Holdings | Professor Robert Kosowski, Professor Marcin Kacperczyk |
| Jingyu Zhang | Applications of Endogenous Information Acquisition by Institutional Investors | Professor Marcin Kacperczyk, Professor Alex Michaelides, Professor Franklin Allen |
| Yang Stephen Zhang | Counterparty Credit Risk, Funding Risk and Central Clearing | Dr Enrico Biffis |
| Yuxin James Zhang | Essays in Life Cycle Portfolio Choice | Professor Alex Michaelides, Professor Robert Kosowski |
| Yu Zheng | Machine Learning and Option Implied Information | Professor Alex Michaelides |
Practical experience
The Finance Department also offers PhD in Finance students the opportunity to engage in teaching activities on the suite of Finance Master’s programmes.