PhD program in Finance

The program’s curriculum is structured in two phases:
(1) a one-year course which trains students for their future research work
(2) a 3-year doctoral training period during which students conduct their research project and write and defend their PhD thesis.

• Phase 1 is completed in the 2nd year of our finance master’s program. During that phase, students draw on courses from the Research-in-Finance track of the Finance master of Dauphine-PSL, and they start working towards their research project. For bachelor’s graduates, this first phase is extended to include the 1st year of the master.
• Phase 2 corresponds to the French doctorate degree. During that phase, students are mentored to gain state-of-the-arts research methods, write academic papers, present at academic conferences, and prepare for the academic job market. This second phase can be extended by one to two years conditional on approval by the PSL doctoral school.

For more information on the program, refer to this document.

Phase 1 | Finance Master – Track 104 Research in Finance

The "Research-in-Finance track” of the Finance master offers fundamental and advanced courses in all fields of finance: corporate finance, financial markets, investments, derivatives, financial modeling and computer programming for finance, banking and financial intermediation, mathematical finance, asset pricing. A wide range of elective courses allow students to specialize on specific topics such as financial analysis, business valuation, international finance, private equity, behavioral finance, machine learning in finance, quantitative finance etc.

PhD program students get research-oriented training with courses in econometrics and research methodology, as well as pre-doctoral courses in corporate finance, asset pricing, and market microstructure with both theoretical and empirical approaches. They are supervised by academic researchers of DRM Finance - our research team in finance - to conduct their research master thesis and they are offered multiple internship opportunities.

They can also enrich their training by a summer school in data sciences.

Phase 2 | Doctoral studies

During their doctoral years, students will benefit from the following programs:

• Academic research practice courses taught by international experts;
• A cycle of doctoral lectures taught by leading academics in their research fields;
• PSL interdisciplinary courses: PSL is a strongly interdisciplinary university with special courses that cut across our disciplinary graduate programs and are open to all graduate students;
• The research seminar series of DRM Finance;
• The Annual Dauphine Finance PhD Workshop that allows PhD students to interact and network with other young researchers from all over the world;
• Travelling grants to promote research visits in foreign universities. 

PhD candidates placement

Our recent PhD graduates have started academic careers in leading universities and business schools, or have become researchers in public institutions such as the ECB or the IMF. More details can be found at this link.

Resources for prospective students