Foundations in financial economics
MGT-301 / 2 credits
Teacher(s): Collin Dufresne Pierre, Hugonnier Julien
Language: English
Remark: Une seule inscription à un cours SHS+MGT autorisée. En cas d'inscriptions multiples elles seront toutes supprimées sans notification
Summary
The aim of this course is to expose EPFL bachelor students to some of the main areas in financial economics. The course will be organized around six themes. Students will obtain both practical insights through real-world examples and understand how one can model the main economic trade-offs.
Content
The course will be organized around six themes that are each covered over two or three weeks from two different angles. The covered themes are
- The time value of money and capital budgeting
- The risk/return tradeoff and portfolio choice
- Derivatives pricing and hedging
- Capital structure
- Agency and contract theory
- Trading on private information
Keywords
Financial economics; investments; stock exchange; finance; stocks and bonds; options; corporate finance; capital budgeting
Learning Prerequisites
Required courses
none
Recommended courses
none
Important concepts to start the course
none
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, the student must be able to:
- Explain standard valuations models used in financial markets
- Recall the trade-off between risk and return and develop an ability to make portfolio decisions
- Develop an ability to analyze and evaluate investment projects
- Describe derivatives markets and their benefits and costs
- Elaborate on the role of information in financial markets
- Analyze the determinants of an agency relation
Transversal skills
- Plan and carry out activities in a way which makes optimal use of available time and other resources.
- Continue to work through difficulties or initial failure to find optimal solutions.
- Assess one's own level of skill acquisition, and plan their on-going learning goals.
- Access and evaluate appropriate sources of information.
- Collect data.
Teaching methods
Lectures; homework; case studies
Expected student activities
Attend lectures
Complete homeworks in groups
Participate in class
Assessment methods
Assignments, completed in groups during the semester.
Assignments may be qualitative, quantitative, data exercises, or real-word case studies (100%)
Supervision
| Office hours | Yes |
| Assistants | Yes |
| Forum | Yes |
Resources
Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI)
No
Bibliography
Corporate Finance, Global Edition, by Jonathan Berk and Peter deMarzo, Addison Wesley 4th edition, ISBN-10: 1292160160
Ressources en bibliothèque
Notes/Handbook
Lecture notes will be provided for each lecture
Moodle Link
In the programs
- Semester: Fall
- Number of places: 120
- Exam form: During the semester (winter session)
- Subject examined: Foundations in financial economics
- Courses: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Type: mandatory