Program Structure

The Swiss Finance Institute PhD program in finance is a centralized program operating on multiple campuses. It builds on and strengthens the existing programs offered by the Swiss Finance Institute's partner universities based in Basel, Geneva, Lausanne, Lugano, St. Gallen, and Zurich.

The curriculum of Swiss Finance Institute’s PhD program in Finance comprises two phases: a preparatory year of intensive coursework followed by, on average, three years of advanced study and research. The program covers a wide range of subjects including economics, financial economics, corporate finance, mathematical finance, and econometrics.

The program begins with a series of core PhD courses. This intensive coursework aims to provide all candidates with a broad and complete education covering the basic building blocks and conceptual tools of finance and help orient students toward a specific field of research and thesis supervisor.

Each of the five campuses has established a program of core courses that reflects the strengths of its faculty (as set out below). These courses provide a sound working basis that enables students to successfully complete the PhD program, generally three years after completing the first phase. Each core course is followed by an examination. The faculty member in charge attributes each student a final grade for each course based on project assessments, in-class participation, and ongoing work submitted. Admission to the second phase (dissertation writing) is determined on the basis of the grades obtained from the core courses and on the successful completion of a summer research paper (for Léman and Zurich campuses) or a comprehensive examination (for Lugano campus) or a research proposal (for Basel and St. Gallen campus).

First-year Courses

• Asset Pricing: Prof. Lorenzo Bretscher
• Big Data and Machine Learning for Financial Economics: Prof. Semyon Malamud
• Dynamic Asset Pricing : Prof. Julien Hugonnier
• Empirical Asset Pricing: Prof. Amit Goyal
• Empirical Corporate Finance: Prof. Norman Schürhoff
• Financial Econometrics and Machine Learning: Prof. Eric Jondeau / Prof. Michael Rockinger
• Financial Econometrics II: Prof. Andreas Fuster / Prof. Boris Nikolov
• Game Theory: Prof. Theodosios Dimopoulos
• Information and Asset Pricing: Prof. Pierre Collin-Dufresne
• International Finance: Prof. Harald Hau
• Theoretical corporate finance: Prof. Francesco Celentano and Prof. Erwan Morellec

For details of the courses please refer to the University of EPFL’s website: https://www.epfl.ch/education/phd/edfi-finance/edfi-course-book/

First-year Courses

• Asset Pricing I: Prof. Paolo Colla
• Corporate Finance I: Prof. Fausto Panunzi
• Corporate Finance II: Empirical Methods for Corporate Finance: Prof. Laurent Frésard
• Econometrics: Prof. Patrick Gagliardini
• Empirical Asset Pricing: Prof. Amit Goyal
• Empirical Asset Pricing II: Prof. Alberto Plazzi
• Household Finance: Prof. Lorenz Küng
• Information and Financial Markets: Prof. Antonio Mele
• Quantitative Methods for Finance: Prof. Alberto Plazzi
• Time Series Analysis: Prof. Patrick Gagliardini

Advanced

• Introduction to Kernel Learning (replacing Tools and Concepts for the Modern Economist): Prof. Paul Schneider
• Bayesian methodology and advanced Monte Carlo Simulations with applications to finance and network data: Prof. Antonietta Mira
• Capital Markets and the Macroeconomy: Prof. Antonio Mele
• Advanced Topics in Financial Economics - Disagreeing about future returns: Prof. Julian Cujean

For details of the courses please refer to the University of Lugano’s website: https://www.ifin.usi.ch/program

Compulsory Courses

• Econometrics for Finance: Prof. Paul Söderlind
• Microeconomics for Finance: Prof. Michèle Müller-Itten
• Asset Pricing: Prof. Matthias Fengler
• Corporate Finance: Prof. Marc Arnold

Compulsory Elective courses Finance (a selection of courses)

• Banking and Contract Economics: Prof. Anastasia Kartasheva 
• Blockchains and Cryptocurrencies: Prof. Bruno Biais (only in FS24)
• Empirical Corporate Finance: Prof. Markus Schmid
• Topics in Insurance Economics: Prof. Hato Schmeiser
• Selected Recent Research Directions in Theoretical and Empirical Asset Pricing: Prof. Fabio Trojani

For details of the courses please refer to the University of St.Gallen’s website:  
https://www.unisg.ch/en/research/phd/graduate-programme-in-economics-and-finance-gpef/your-curriculum/

First-year Courses

• Asset Pricing: Prof. Felix Kübler / Prof. Yucheng Yang
  Banking and Contract Economics: Prof. Christoph Basten / Prof. Steven Ongena
• Corporate Finance: Prof. Alexander Wagner / Prof. Kjell Nyborg
• Econometrics: Prof. Damian Kozbur
• Empirical Corporate Finance: Prof. Zacharias Sautner /  Prof. Per Östberg
• Mathematical Finance: Prof. Pablo Koch Medina / Prof. Markus Leippold (Prof. Leippold is available in HS25)
• Microeconomics: Prof. Nick Netzer

Advanced

• Advances in Computational Economics and Finance: Prof. Felix Kübler
• Brown Bag Lunch Seminar: Prof. Per Östberg
• Climate change and finance: metrics to assess risks and opportunities: Prof. Stefano Battiston
• Colloquium for Doctoral Students: Prof. Thorsten Hens
• Cultural Economics and Finance: Prof. Marc Oliver Rieger 
• Digital Tools for Finance : Dr. Igor Pozdeev
• Doctoral Colloquium in Corporate Finance: Prof. Kjell Nyborg
• Recursive Methods: Prof. Felix Kübler
• Writing for publication in Banking and Finance: Prof. Camila Addiechi / Prof. Davide Camorani

For details of the courses please refer to the University of Zurich’s website: https://www.phd-finance.uzh.ch/en/Courses/2425firstyear.html

Upon admission to the second phase of the program or just before for the St. Gallen campus, Swiss Finance Institute PhD candidates select a thesis topic and choose their thesis supervisor. Typically, students participate in research projects carried out at a partner university and work within their chosen project as a research or teaching assistant. These research projects’ networks also guarantee intensive contact with PhD students from other Swiss universities and provide an excellent and stimulating research environment. 

During this second phase all candidates are required to attend the “SFI Research Days” at the Study Center Gerzensee, the annual research conference organized by SFI, and the series of internal “brown-bag” lunch seminars organized by their partner department or university. In addition, SFI organizes advanced courses to enable students to acquire the skills that are most relevant to their thesis work. Recent examples of advanced doctoral courses are: "Blockchains and Cryptocurrencies” by Bruno Biais, HEC Paris, “Empirical Asset Pricing” by Mikhail Chernov, University of California, Los Angeles, and “Finance and Product Markets: Theory, Evidence, and Measurements" by Gordon Philipps, Dartmouth College and Laurent Frésard, SFI@USI.

The completion of the PhD in Finance program requires two successful evaluations: the first phase evaluation and a final defense of the PhD dissertation. Università della Svizzera italiana, the University of Geneva, the University of Lausanne, and the University of Zurich award a “Doctorate in Economics with Specialization in Finance”, the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne a “Doctorate in Science with Specialization in Finance”, the University of St. Gallen a “Doctor of Philosophy in Finance”, and the University of Basel a “Doctor rerum politicarum”.