PhD seminar – Class 1

Presentation format

• Total time of presentation is 60 to 80 minutes depending on the paper(s)
• In general each presentation should have the following sections:
• Motivation for study – this can be done in conjunction with the literature review.
• Review of literature: Give a review of the literature up to the point the paper you are presenting was written. Usually we will have follow up papers that will update this review. Focus primarily on the main empirical papers in this area.
• Testable hypothesis and the theory. Theory is critical in generating testable hypothesis. Most papers generate their tests from theories. You need to review the relevant theories. Please focus on the intuition and the test each theory implies. Explain it in a way that the seminar attendants will understand why this implication is made. You do not need to explain the techniques used to derive the theory nor critique the theory (unless it is important for the tests in the paper).
• Sample selection:
• What is the sample used in the study
• Time period
• What criteria were used to select and eliminate firms from the sample.
• Are the any problems with the sample (selection bias, survivorship bias, not representative of the population…)
• Data section – explain the type and source of the data used in the study. When appropriate critique the quality of the data. For example: is it subject to error, or selection bias, are there key data items that are missing.
• Explanation of statistical techniques used in the paper.
• Go over the main tables and results in the paper.
• Summary, conclusions and potential for future research.

Literature review

There are many sources available to NYU students to help get relevant articles and conduct comprehensive and in-depth research on published and working papers form you computer.

• Econ Lit – go though Bobst to the Econ Lit page. This will allow you to search by author or keywords and find relevant papers including abstract. EconLit is particularly good for published papers but also includes some working papers.
• Citation index for cites to a particular paper. This is good if the topic is not referenced in the introduction. I get to it through SternNet
• E Journals – Full text in pdf (and other format of hundreds of business journals (including all the important ones) going back several years.
• Forthcoming papers in the journals own sites. A good link for Finance journal is from the Journal of finance
• Working papers:
• NYU working papers
• SSRN

Data sources

Name	Source for NYU students	Data type	Period
CRSP	WRDS	Stock prices	1920s to last year
Compustat	WRDS	Accounting data	1950's to last year
Worldscop	Library	International accounting	at least 10 years
SDC	CD	Corporate issuances and M&A	Varies (starts in the 1970s)
Lexis / Nexis	Bobst online	Full text of news papers articles	Varies (starts in the 1970s)
Edgar	Bobst online	Full test of corporate filings	1992 to present
Compact Disclosure	Bobst CDs	Company info including management and board	1990s
IBES	WRDS (need approval)	Analyst estimates	1970s to last year
Insider trading	WRDS	Insider trading transactions	1986 to last year
Institutional holdings 13F	WRDS	Quarterly institutional holdings	1980 to last year

Statistical software:

· SAS is available both in Unix and PC formats

o NYU has a site-license for PC SAS for a small fee per year.

o Excellent for data handling

o Good for cross section analysis

o Mediocre for time series

o Very IO intense therefore slower than many other statistical software.

· STATA

· TSP