About Finance, MPhil - at University of Exeter Business School
The Finance Department has a well-established reputation for high-quality research with particular strengths in corporate finance, portfolio management, risk management and financial econometrics. In a recent study of research productivity in
The Journal of Business Finance and Accounting 2003, the University of Exeter was ranked as the seventh most productive Accounting and Finance department in Europe over the previous five years, with several of our academic staff acknowledged as being leading contributors in their field. Many of the Finance staff hold visiting positions at other universities in the UK and abroad, and all members of the department regularly present their research work at international seminars and conferences. The department also attracts eminent visitors and seminar speakers from other universities.
Our 25 research students form an integral part of the Department, with most working as teaching or research assistants. They are actively supported through the provision of formal tuition in accounting, finance, economics and econometrics and an annual research student conference at which students present their work. We encourage all research students to attend courses offered by Learning and Teaching Support Services and the Generic Skills Training Programme in order to develop their teaching and learning skills. They are also encouraged, and provided with funds, to attend and present their work at conferences. When they graduate, our research students will typically have had experience of tutoring, lecturing, dissertation supervision, examination and assignment assessment and research presentation. Recent graduates have gone on to take up academic positions in leading universities in the UK and abroad, and prominent positions in the private and public sectors.
Staff Research Interests Professor George Bulkley Behavioural finance; empirical asset pricing; the term structure of interest rates.
Dr Paul Cox Interfaces between investment institutions and corporations; determinants of savings and investments amongst individuals; perspectives concerning risks in individual investment behaviour.
Professor Paul Draper Pension fund asset allocat
Dr Sean Finucane Empirical asset pricing; pension funds; venture capital; empirical corporate finance.
Professor Alan Gregory Risk factors; the `small firms` effect; take-overs and mergers; directors` trading; initial public offerings; empirical corporate finance; equity risk premium; firm valuation models; fund manager performance; insider trading; ethical fund management.
Professor Richard Harris Risk measurement; hedging; volatility in financial markets; mergers.
Professor Ian Tonks Market microstructure and the organisation of stock exchanges; directors` trading; pension economics; fund manager performance; executive compensation; pension fund asset allocation; insider trading.
Dr Grzegorz Trojanowski Corporate governance; empirical corporate finance; executive compensation.
Dr Jon Tucker Capital structure; equity valuation; cost of capital; econometric modelling of financial decisions; small firm finance; public sector finance; firm valuation models; financial econometrics.
XFi: The Centre for Finance and InvestmentThe building of Xfi, the Centre for Finance and Investment, was made possible by an anonymous multi-million pound donation. The purpose-built Centre supplements high quality postgraduate teaching facilities provided within the School and houses the academic and support staff associated with the Finance programmes.
Xfi enables the School to build on its outstanding reputation for research and teaching in finance. The Centre provides students, financial professionals and global financial institutions with a direct gateway to practical business solutions through the work of leading academics and practitioners and interdisciplinary synergy with other areas of expertise within Business and Economics.
The Centre runs an industry-focused MSc in Financial Analysis and Fund Management.
