金融领域涵盖了对资源要求的经济学。例如，金钱是对商品和服务，股票和债券的债权，而期货合约都是对金钱或商品的债权。金融经济学家研究了这些债权的估价，交易市场以及个人，公司和整个社会的使用情况。在斯坦福GSB，金融系和博士生研究广泛的金融主题，包括资产的定价和估值，金融市场的行为以及公司和金融中介的结构和金融决策。对这些领域中出现的问题的调查既可以通过理论模型的开发，也可以通过对这些模型的经验检验来进行。博士学位课程旨在让学生对理论建模和实证测试中使用的方法有很好的了解。
The field of finance covers the economics of claims on resources. Financial economists study the valuation of these claims, the markets in which they are traded, and their use by individuals, corporations, and the society at large. At Stanford GSB, finance faculty and doctoral students study a wide spectrum of financial topics, including the pricing and valuation of assets, the behavior of financial markets, and the structure and financial decision-making of firms and financial intermediaries. Investigation of issues arising in these areas is pursued both through the development of theoretical models and through the empirical testing of those models. The PhD Program is designed to give students a good understanding of the methods used in theoretical modeling and empirical testing.