Empirical Corporate Finance

Empirical corporate finance is an important field in Finance that studies the organization and behavior of firms. It deals with questions related to firms’ investment policies, funding decisions, corporate governance, managerial incentives, and the interaction between firms and the labor market. This course provides an introduction into the empirical research into these fundamental issues.

In each of the first six lecture, we focus on a specific topic. We will discuss the state-of-the-art of the current literature and the methodological challenges faced by researchers to draw causal inferences from observational data.

During the course, students will work on an (empirical) research proposal that they will present in the seventh lecture.

Topics:

· The origins of the corporation and limited liability (guest lecture by Peter Koudijs)

· Capital structure

· Security issuance

· Bank financing

· Corporate governance in banking and financial crises (guest lecture by Peter Koudijs)

· Labor and finance