Template pre-course assignment / registration form


Instructions

This assignment is designed to familiarize you with one academic research paper. Try to find an interesting article published in a recent issue of a journal. As your thesis is likely to involve some empirical analysis, you benefit probably the most from choosing an empirical paper. Please select the paper from either the Journal of Finance, the Review of Financial Studies, or the Journal of Financial Economics, available at:

Please note that you can access these websites for free only from aalto University network.

First, read carefully through the article you have selected. Do not get stuck if you do not understand all the details, try to understand the big picture. After reading the article, answer the questions below. Your report should be max. 3 pages long with 1.5 spacing. Please use the template at Templates-page for your answers.

Please bring your answers with you to the kick-off session. Handing in the assignment is mandatory for being accepted to the course. We will have a thorough discussion of the paper and your answers in the first meeting.

Questions

1. What is the research question of the paper?

2. What is the contribution of the paper, i.e. what new does it bring to the existing literature?

3. What are the main hypotheses?

4. Where do the data come from? What is the time period? How large is the sample?

5. What different methods do the authors use?

6. What are the main findings?

7. What kinds of limitations and problems regarding the methods or data do the authors discuss?

8. What kinds of extra analyses, i.e. robustness checks, do the authors undertake to convince the readers that their results are reliable?

In addition, this pre-assignment serves as a registration for for the course so please pay extra attention to input your email-address correctly.



Last modified: Wednesday, 24 July 2019, 12:40 AM