The Department of Finance has 28 full-time academic staff|, and 36 PhD students|. It is closely associated with LSE's Financial Markets Group| which has long been one of the leading centres of research in financial economics in the world. Our research embraces all of the major areas of financial economics including the operation of financial markets; corporate finance; derivatives; financial econometrics; corporate governance; and financial risk and regulation. We have a long-established tradition of lively contributions to public debates and to the research literature.
The Department received the highest rating of 5* in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise, the review of university research by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE|).
We have notable strengths in:
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financial economics
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empirical studies of asset pricing
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asset pricing under market frictions (including the delegation of money management)
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macro-finance
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corporate financial structure
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corporate governance
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financial regulation
Financial Markets Group (FMG)
The research activities of the Finance faculty of LSE are closely linked to the LSE's Financial Markets Group (FMG)|. Since its founding in 1987 the FMG has been a major research centre with a full range of research activities including weekly research seminars, major academic conferences, roundtable policy debates with financial practitioners, funded research projects, post-doctoral research, and a programme of academic visitors. The world-class prominence of the FMG is reflected in a number of indicators summarized in five-year review of its activities (FMG Interim Review, January 2005) including:
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428 Research Seminars
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21 Major Conferences
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12 Public Lectures
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219 FMG Discussion Papers
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50 FMG Special Papers
Research activities at FMG are organized within seven research programmes: