This course introduces doctoral students to different research areas in finance and provides an overview of the contemporary topics in financial economics. Subfields covered in the course include portfolio theory, derivative markets, asset and risk management, capital structure decisions, mergers and acquisitions, credit rankings, market microstructure, financial intermediaries and international finance among others. Topics to be covered include common threats to validity in research design, decisions regarding the choice of samples and settings, measurement issues such as reliability and validity, estimation methods, data collection tools, and ethics in planning, conduct, and publication of research.