This week-long course follows the Entrepreneurial Finance Phd course described on this site with a few modifications. We will cover the major topics from the 6-week in-person course and highlight key institutional details required for successful entrepreneurial finance research. Several course sessions will focus on the “how” of research, key databases used in the field, opportunities to present new ideas, and live examples of some data analysis in recent work. Students will have ample opportunities to interact with their peers and the participating faculty. Importantly, this course is not a substitute for the invaluable NBER Entrepreneurship Bootcamp that provides a rigorous education of the broad entrepreneurship area in an amazing enviornment (the NBER Summer Institute). This course provide in-depth coverage of the entrepreneurial finance topics covered in some of the bootcamp sessions.
Goals and teaching objectives
Few universities have courses dedicated to the topic of entrepreneurial finance, while the opportunities for research and job opportunities is growing. Motivated by this, the course aims to provide an overview of modern research in entrepreneurial finance and, more importantly, provide the foundation for success in producing research: mastering institutional details. These include definitions, industry norms, regulations (history of changes), laws, databases, disclosure rules, and more. There is a hidden “literature” of these institutional details in all major empirical work. This course presents a literature review for these details while teaching entrepreneurial finance.
Schedule
The tentative schedule includes approximately 6 hours of class sessions (lectures, student presentations, etc), lunch (sometimes group, otherwise independent), and two group dinners.
Monday: Entrepreneurial firm formation and organizational form
9:30-11:00am: Lecture
15 minute break
11:15-12:45pm: Lecture
12:45-2pm: working lunch with student introduction and research summaries (part 1)
2-3:30pm: Lecture
15 minute break
3:45 – 5pm: Institutional details I
Tuesday: Capital constraints
9:30-11:00am: Lecture
15 minute break
11:15-12:45pm: Research methods 1: evaluating “shocks” and natural experiments.
12:45-2pm: working lunch with student introduction and research summaries (part 2)
2-3:30pm: Lecture
15 minute break
3:45 – 5pm: Institutional details II
6:30-8:30pm: Group dinner
Wednesday: Capital sources: entrepreneur wealth and banks
9:30-11:00am: Lecture
15 minute break
11:15-12:45pm: Lecture
12:45-2pm: lunch (independent)
2-3:30pm: Research methods 2: working with private firm data
15 minute break
3:45 – 5pm: Institutional details III
Thursday: Financial intermediaries
9:30-11:00am: Discuss assigned papers (referee reports)
15 minute break
11:15-12:45pm: Lecture
12:45-2pm: Lunch (independent)
2-3:30 pm: Research process, career issues, and publication discussion (multiple faculty). Students submit questions in advance.
15 minute break
3:45 – 5pm: Institutional details IV
6:30-8:30pm: Final group dinner
Friday: Capital structure, exits and investor returns
9:30-11:00am: Lecture
15 minute break
11:15-12:45pm: Lecture
12:45-2pm: Lunch (independent)
2-3:30pm: Institutional details V
15 minute break
3:45 – 4:30: Course wrap-up and student questions
Student expectations and deliverables
Students are expected to attend all class sessions and are encouraged to participate. Each student will submit a short research proposal by the end of the week that the faculty team will provide comments on after the course.
Dates
June 2024
Location
TBD
Admission and costs
Students are expected to be the 2nd or 3rd year of their PhD, having completed the basic core classes in economics and/or finance.
Interested students should fill out this form, which requires basic biographical information, a resume, and two references (emails).
Cost: TBD
Questions and contact
If you have any questions about the summer school, please contact Prof. Mike Ewens.