Bachelor
2024/2025
Empirical Finance
Type:
Elective course (HSE/NES Programme in Economics)
Delivered by:
Undergraduate Programmes Curriculum Support
When:
4 year, 1 module
Open to:
students of one campus
Language:
English
Course Syllabus
Abstract
This course is a first course in finance and will give you an overview over the most commonfinancial instruments, contemporary financial markets and financial intermediaries. In whatfollows, it covers the basic topics in Corporate Finance and Investments. Core concepts will includethe time value of money, opportunity costs, arbitrage pricing, bond valuation, stock valuation,concepts of risk, portfolio theory, investment strategies, asset pricing, market efficiency, andcapital structure.Financial markets and corporations generate a large quantity of data. An important part of thecourse will be to visualize and analyze price data for different financial instruments (stocks, bonds,indices, derivatives). The programming language of choice for this course is R, and you are highlyencouraged to learn its basics. This gives you a single tool to perform such diverse tasks as datavisualization, finding polynomial roots (e.g., an internal rate of return), bond valuation, portfoliooptimization, estimating factor models, and derivative pricing
Learning Objectives
- After learning the course, students will know necessary basics for evaluating different management decisions and their influence on corporate performance and value; how to analyse corporate behaviour in capital markets and the relationship of agent and principal in raising funds, allocating capital, distributing returns.
- Students will be able to work with information from a variety of sources, especially data from financial statements and financial data from open access; generalise and discuss the results of theoretical and empirical studies and to reveal the possible directions for further research in examined area.
- Students will have skills of applying different models to value company’s assets and capital; justify the efficiency of company’s strategic decisions (investment decisions, financing decisions, payout decisions) and make recommendations; reveal and analyse factors affecting company value.
Expected Learning Outcomes
- The course develops theoretical framework for understanding and analysing major financial problems of modern firm in the market environment.
- The main objective of the course is to provide the conceptual background for corporate financial analysis from the point of corporate value creation.
Course Contents
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Interest rates and compounding
- A Simple Theory of financial markets
- 4. Stock valuation
- 6. Financial statements
- 7. Capital budgeting
- 8. Bond valuation, term structure and interest rate risk
- 9. Derivatives
- 11. Market Efficiency
- 12. Capital Structure and Payout Policy
- 10. Risk and return
Interim Assessment
- 2024/2025 1st module0.33 * Активность + 0.33 * Промежуточная контрольная + 0.34 * Финальная контрольная
Bibliography
Recommended Core Bibliography
- Alexander, G. J., Sharpe, W. F., & Bailey, J. V. (2012). Fundamentals of investments. Slovenia, Europe: Prentice Hall. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.C1BEBDC4
Recommended Additional Bibliography
- Vernimmen, P. (2017). Corporate Finance : Theory and Practice (Vol. Fifth edition). Hoboken: Wiley. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1606902