The Department of Finance offers courses in finance and business economics. The undergraduate and M.B. A. programs offer concentrations in finance.
The curriculum focuses on imparting an understanding of the principles that guide financial management, asset management, and general business
management. Students master the following skills
Evaluation of capital investment projects
Valuation of companies, securities and derivative contracts
Measurement and management of risk
Evaluation and formation of investment strategies
Financial forecasting and assessment of financing requirements
Interpretation of financial market prices and interest rates
The department also offers a Ph.D. program in finance that focuses on training students to conduct scholarly
research and to teach at the college level.
Faculty
The department has nine tenure track faculty members, who are actively involved in scholarly research and teaching, and six non-tenure track faculty members.
Faculty members serve on the editorial boards of leading academic journals and have won several teaching and research awards. Finance faculty members’ research
is published primarily in the leading journals in economics and finance. The finance department has a strong reputation for its research on investment management
and corporate finance.
Activities
The finance department hosted an academic conference in 2004 on Delegated Portfolio Management and a conference in 2006 on Empirical Research in Corporate Finance.
The department will host a conference on Institutional Investors and the Asset Management Industry on July 31 and August 1, 2008.
During the academic year the finance department hosts a number of faculty members from other universities to present and discuss their current research.
In 2007 the department hosted Dr. Paula Tkac and Dr. Eric Kelley as summer research scholars. Each of them spent one week on campus conducting research with members
of the finance department faculty.
The finance department sponsors the University of Oregon Investment Group, a student-run organization that manages an investment portfolio of $750 million.
Hewlett-Packard Corporation and the finance department co-sponsor an annual M.B.A. case competition in financial analysis.
Research and other activities of the Finance Department are supported by Finance Partners and the Securities Analysis Center.
