Tentative Course Descriptions—Fall 2008

Accounting

All Ph.D. seminars are listed under Accounting 971. Below is a listing of the four different seminars we offer. The faculty teaching the seminars can vary a little over time, but should be pretty stable. Currently, we plan to offer all four seminars over a two year cycle. The intro seminar is offered every year.

Introduction to Accounting Research

  • Offered every fall
  • Recently taught by Holly Skaife and Brian Mayhew
  • Fall 2008 Ella Mae Matsumura

This course covers the philosophy of science and classic papers in accounting. The POS papers will probably include writing by Blaug, Popper, Friedman, and Cook and Campbell. Fall 2006 will include a broad sampling of theory of the firm papers including Jensen and Meckling 1976, Coase 1937, Simon, Alchian and Demsetz. We will also probably cover a few classic finance, economics, and accounting papers including work by Fama, Ball and Brown, Beaver, Vernon Smith and any others I rediscover before fall. I anticipate one major assignment which will require the reading and synthesis of recent research published in top journals over the most recent 5 years. While the course definitely has an accounting edge to it, much of the material is pretty broad and appropriate for a more general business school audience. I am also willing to tailor the assignment to other disciplines.

Capital Markets Research in Accounting

  • Offered every other year
  • Spring 2008- John Wild

This course covers capital markets research. Most of the research relies on archival data utilizing accounting and stock market databases. Topics vary a little by instructor, but generally include earnings/returns associations, market response to accounting data, stock analyst, corporate governance, cost of capital and etc. The role of information in markets plays a significant role in the course.

Behavioral Research in Accounting

  • Offered every other year
  • Spring 2009 - TBA

This course covers behavioral research in accounting. The majority of the research deals with judgment and decision making. It draws heavily from psychology and social psychology. A majority of the discussion focuses on JDM research in accounting, auditing and taxation. There is a very active and large literature exploring decision making by auditors.

Experimental Economics Research in Accounting

  • Offered every other year
  • Spring 2008 - Brian Mayhew

This course covers experimental economics and its application to accounting. Approximately half of the readings are on general experimental economics applications. It includes coverage of asset market research, bidding behavior, and the science of experimental economics. Accounting applications are emphasized where appropriate. Many classic economic problems such as information asymmetry, moral hazard and adverse selection are covered as part of the discussion. Experiments often challenge existing economic theory providing students with some notion of the boundaries to the exposed theories.
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Actuarial Science, Risk Management and Insurance Courses

Three Ph.D. courses are offered every other year.

RMI 920, Seminar in Actuarial Science, Risk Management and Insurance I, last offered Fall 2007, Joan Schmit

Overview: This course will familiarize doctoral students with scholarly research in the field of risk management and insurance and develop doctoral students' skills to pursue original research. The course involves reading research papers that have been published in the field, as well as several working papers that are currently being reviewed for possible publication. This course emphasizes risk management and liability aspects.

RMI 930, Seminar in Actuarial Science, Risk Management and Insurance II, last offered Spring 2007, Mark Browne

Overview: This course will familiarize doctoral students with scholarly research in the field of risk management and insurance and develop doctoral students' skills to pursue original research. The course involves reading research papers that have been published in the field, as well as several working papers that are currently being reviewed for possible publication. This course emphasizes life and health aspects.

Gen Bus 806, Panel Data Analysis, Fall 2006, Jed Frees, Next offered: Fall 2009

The course objectives are:

  • To enable graduate social science students to perform empirical research using panel data models.
  • To provide an overview of the econometric and biostatistics literatures with an applications orientation.
  • To emphasize data exploration, diagnostics and model selection techniques. Please see the website for more information.

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Finance

Fin 971 Seminar in Corporate Finance, Fall 2008 - Masako Ueda

Intensive study and critical examination of recent theoretical literature in corporate finance. Students will read, discuss, study, and present recently published research papers in this area.

Fin 972 Seminar Workshop in Finance, Spring 2008, Toni Whited

Seminar primarily devoted to the generation of original research in the field of finance for the Ph.D. dissertation and subsequent publication in the academic literature.

Finance 973 Seminar Workshop in Finance, Fall 2008 - TBA

Seminar primarily devoted to the generation of original research in the field of finance for the Ph.D. dissertation and subsequent publication in the academic literature.
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Management

MHR 835 Research Methods in Management, Fall 2008 - Charlie Trevor

Introduces graduate students to the quantitative methods that are used to address a wide variety of research questions in organizational studies. The course is organized around a model of research that illustrates the role of causal relationships in research and distinguishes between conceptual and measurement levels. We address various aspects of measurement (e.g., levels of measurement, reliability, and construct validity ), design (e.g., design characteristics for experiments, quasi-experiments, field studies and surveys; challenges to valid inferences from designs), analysis (e.g., sampling distributions, statistical hypothesis testing, statistical power, confidence intervals), and research report writing/presentation. It is assumed that students enter the course with knowledge of introductory statistics.

MHR 870 Seminar in Administrative Policy, Fall 2008 – Cindy Devers

Application of management processes and decision theory to the analysis of cases and critical incidents in management.  Cases and incidents deal with both administrative or corporate strategy and with supervisory tactics.

MHR 872 Seminar in Organization Behavior and Design – Fall 2008 – Alex Stajkovic

Analysis and discussion of selected topics in organizational behavior and design.

MHR 975 Doctoral Research Seminar in Management, Fall 2008 - Barry Gerhart

The purpose of this class is to build skills in the design, conduct, and evaluation of research in management and human resources. Specific topics include validity, reliability, specification errors, causal inference, meta-analysis, effect sizes, reviewing research, and the publication process.

MHR 976, Doctoral Research Seminar in Management, last offered Spring 2007, Mason Carpenter

Continuation of MHR 975.

MHR 977 Emerging Entrepreneurship Theory and Research, Fall 2008 – Anne Miner

Explores contemporary entrepreneurship theory and research topics, and it provides students an opportunity to probe and develop scholarly theories of entrepreneurial behavior and outcomes.

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Marketing

Marketing Strategy Seminar-Mkt 971, Fall 2008 – Kersi Antia

This course is designed to provide aspiring doctoral students with a broad exposure to the marketing strategy literature. This exposure includes coverage of both classic and recent research in the field. This course is designed to provide a working knowledge of the important substantive topics and conceptual ideas that underlie historic and contemporary marketing strategy research. Given marketing strategy's interdisciplinary roots, this course will also cover important works in related fields, including management, economics, and sociology. This course will expose students to new ideas, help them critically analyze these ideas, and provide the opportunity to relate these ideas to their own research interests.

Marketing 972, PhD Seminar in Interorganizational Relationships, Spring 2008 - Craig Thompson

This seminar is designed t provide an introduction to the area of interorganizational relationships. As such, it will identify, review, evaluate and critique a variety of topics in the field of interorganizational relationships. The major objectives are to help you (1) understand the methods and perspectives employed in the area, (2) become a more sophisticated consumer of interorganizational research, and (3) identify areas for future research activity.
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General Business

General Business 975, Communication for Dissertators, Spring 2009 - David Ward

Review of research writing and presentation strategies and practice drafting, editing, and presenting proposal and/or dissertation sections for feedback and revision.  Seminar/workshop designed for post-prelim dissertators: focuses on advanced structural and clarity issues, not basic writing/grammar.
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Real Estate

Real Estate 978, Seminar in Urban Land Economics PhD,Fall 2008 – Tim Riddiough

Continuation of RE 977.  Philosophic basis of research thinking and technique; case applications to the problems of urban land economics.