Finance & Economics

Focus Track - Finance & Economics logo

The MS track in Finance and Economics stresses the courses STA 521L and STA 610L that are critical core/foundations for students to develop skills and experience in the primary statistical methodologies relevant as they move into such areas. Students on these tracks are then advised to consider MS electives such as STA 642 (Time Series and Dynamic Models, linked to areas of modeling and forecasting, especially in finance and business), STA 640 (Causal Inference, linked areas including comparative effectiveness research, observational studies, and others), and STA 623 (Statistics and Decision Analysis, linked to the evaluation of decision problems).

Students may and will typically consider adding at least one, possibly two electives in other programs and departments, with and following detailed consultation with their MS advisor. Duke offers several relevant graduate courses in the Fuqua School of Business and the Department of Economics. Some students may elect an introductory or second-level course in econometrics (e.g., ECON 608D, Introduction to Econometrics; ECON 612, Time Series Econometrics, among others) and/or in finance (e.g., ECON 673, Mathematical Finance; ECON 623, Forecasting Financial Markets; ECON 571, Financial Markets and Investments; BA 551: Empirical Asset Pricing; BA 553: Theoretical Asset Pricing, among others). 

Selected Past Employers:
  • Capital One
  • Wells Fargo
  • US Federal Reserve Bank
  • Visa
  • BlackRock
  • UBS, Warburg, LLC. 
  • Voya Financial
  • Taikang Life Insurance Co., Ltd. 
  • Travelers Insurance
  • Paypal
  • Morgan Stanley
  • Citibank
  • Liberty Mutual Insurance
  • D.E. Shaw and Co.
  • GM Financial
  • Brookfield Asset Management
  • Truist
  • Huatai Securities
  • IMC
  • Partners Group