Advanced Topics in Empirical Finance

Campbell R. Harvey, 
Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, Durham, NC
National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA

Summer 1996 University of Helsinki

Course Description

The goal of this course is to give a unique perspective on the some of the most challenging problems in finance. The course is designed to challenge the doctoral student with problems, many of which have not been solved yet, whose solution could impact the practice of financial management. In this course, more questions are raised than answered.

The idea of the course is not to go through in detail all of the assigned reading. It will be assumed that students have read each of the articles. The classroom discussion will be broad and will not necessarily focus on any technical details in the readings. We are more interested in extracting the big picture and what it means for the future of finance.

Prerequisites

This course will not deal with the basics of empirical finance. A detailed knowledge of the main asset pricing models and the appropriate econometric tools is assumed. The prerequisite preparation is the manuscript by Campbell, Lo and MacKinlay.

Problem Set

There is one problem set which must be completed and emailed to me.

Outside Class Contact

I am available via email, bulletin board and office hours.

Grading

Grading will be based on the problem set.

Hypertexts

Harvey, Campbell R. 1996, Advanced Topics in Empirical Finance

Outline and Reading Assignments

Most of the required reading for the Ph.D. course will come from journal articles and working papers which are found in the packet. The codes denote common links to my homepage biography which contains abstracts of the articles.

0. Pre-June 3
Overview and prerequisites.
Historical Returns. Visit Web Site.
Read Campbell, Lo and MacKinlay (1996)

1. June 3 morning I
Course introduction.
Economic Significance of Asset Pricing Frameworks
Readings:
Ferson and Jagannathan (1996)
Ferson (1993)
Ferson and Harvey (1991)

2. June 3 morning II
Application: Performance Evaluation
Readings:
Ferson and Schadt (1996).
Chen and Knez (1996).
Graham and Harvey (1996) (W11)
Bansal and Harvey (1996) (W19)
Farnsworth, Ferson, Todd and Yomtov (1995)

3. June 3 afternoon
Conditional Asset Pricing
Readings:
Harvey (P10)
Carhart, Krail, Stevens and Welsh (1996)
Cochrane (1994)
Ferson and Harvey (P21)
Bekaert and Harvey (P33)
Ferson and Harvey (P20)
Harvey (P32)

4. June 4 morning I
Application: GMM-Based Asset Pricing Tests
Readings:
Harvey (P3),
Harvey (P10)

5. June 4 morning II
Issues in International Asset Pricing Models
Readings:
Harvey (P10),
Harvey (P32)
Bekaert and Harvey (P33)

6. June 4 afternoon
Application: Understanding Risk and Return in Emerging Markets
Readings:
Harvey (P32)
Bekaert and Harvey (P33)
Bekaert and Harvey (w14)

7. June 5 morning
New Directions for Research in Empirical Finance
Readings:
Glodjo and Harvey (w13)
Harvey (w6)
Fama (1991)

Articles and Books

Bansal, Ravi and Campbell R. Harvey, 1995, "Performance Evaluation in the Presense of Trading Strategies," Working paper, Fuqua School of Business. (W19)

Bekaert, Geert and Campbell R. Harvey, 1995, "Time-Varying Conditional World Market Integration," Journal of Finance 1995, 403-444. (P33)

Bekaert, Geert and Campbell R. Harvey, 1996, "Emerging Equity Market Volatility," Working paper, Fuqua School of Business. (W14)

Campbell, John, Andrew Lo and Craig MacKinlay, 1996, Empirical Finance, Unpublished manuscript.

Carhart, Mark M., Robert J. Krail, Ross L. Stevens, and Kelly D. Welsh, 1996, ``Testing the Conditional CAPM," Unpublished working paper, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA.

Chen, Zhiwu and Peter J. Knez, 1996, ``Portfolio Performance Measurement: Theory and Applications," Unpublished working paper, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI.

Cochrane, John, 1994, ``Discrete-Time Empirical Finance," Unpublished manuscript, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.

Fama, Eugene F., 1991, "Efficient Capital Markets: II," Journal of Finance 46: 1575-1617.

Fama, Eugene F. and Kenneth R. French, 1992, "The Cross-Section of Expected Stock Returns" Journal of Finance 47, 427-465.

Fama, Eugene F. and Kenneth R. French, 1993, "Common Risk Factors in the Returns on Stocks and Bonds," Journal of Financial Economics 33, 3-56.

Farnsworth, Heber, Wayne Ferson, Steven Todd and Bernard Yomtov, 1995, ``Conditional Performance Evaluation," Unpublished working paper, University of Washington, Seattle, WA

Wayne E. Ferson, 1993, ``Theory and Empirical Testing of Asset Pricing Models," Unpublished working paper, University of Washington, Seattle WA.

Ferson, Wayne E. and Campbell R. Harvey, 1993, "The Risk and Predictability of International Equity Returns," Review of Financial Studies 6: 527-566. (P21)

Ferson, Wayne E. and Campbell R. Harvey, 1996, ``Country Risk in Asset Pricing Tests," Working paper, Fuqua School of Business. (W7)

Ferson, Wayne E. and Ravi Jagannathan, 1996, ``Econometric Evaluation of Asset Pricing Models" Working paper, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.

Ferson, Wayne E. and Rudi Schadt, 1996, "Measuring Fund Strategy and Performance in Changing Economic Conditions," Working paper, University of Washington, Seattle.

Glodjo, Arman and Campbell R. Harvey, 1994, "Forecasting Foreign Exchange Market Returns via Entropy Based Coding: The Framework," Working paper, Fuqua School of Business. (W13)

Graham, John and Campbell R. Harvey, 1996, "Market Timing Ability and Volatility Implied in Investment Newsletters' Asset Allocation Recommendations," Journal of Financial Economics. (W11)

Harvey, Campbell R., 1991a, "The World Price of Covariance Risk," Journal of Finance 46, 111-157. (W10)

Harvey, Campbell R., 1991b, "The Specification of Conditional Expectations," Working paper, Fuqua School of Business. (W6)

Harvey, Campbell R., 1995a, "Predictable Risk and Returns in Emerging Markets," Review of Financial Studies 773-816. (P32)