Seminar: Advanced Empirical Analysis of Exchange Rates (F)

Course content

The objective of the seminar is for students to work on independent research projects related to exchange rates. Students choose their topic in consultation with the seminar organizer.

 

The following list provide possible topics but students are free to choose other topics as well.

 

  • Are exchange rate models useful for forecasting?
  • Are fundamental based exchange rate models useful?
  • Is it profitable to use carry trade strategies?
  • Bid-ask spreads and uncertainty
  • Exchange rates and monetary policy uncertainty
  • Deviations from CIP
  • FX liquidity, measurements and determinants
  • Google Search Volume Index measures and exchange rates
  • Danish central bank interventions
  • Explaining the forward premium puzzle, the role of liquidity and deviations from PPP
  • Are FX and stock returns related?
  • Are there arbitrage opportunities on the FX market?
  • The information content of order flows
  • The sources of fluctuations in real and nominal exchange rates
Education

MSc programme in Economics

The course is a part of the financial line, signified by (F)

 

The seminar is primarily for students at the MSc of Economics.

Learning outcome

In addition to the learning outcome specified in the Master curriculum the student is after completing the seminar expected to be able to:

 

Knowledge:

  • Define relevant research purpose and structure a seminar paper.
  • Discuss alternative theories/approaches relevant for the seminar paper.
  • Reflect and critize existing theories/empirical work on the chosen topic.

     

Skills:

  • Assess previous approaches and choose with a motivation an approach to be used in the seminar paper.
  • Analyze exchange rate behavior using empirical methods.
  • Analyze own results and evaluate these given existing literature.
  • Communicate own results in a scientific and professional manner.
  • Present own work and discuss other seminar papers in a scientific and professional manner.

     

Competences:

  • Plan a research project.
  • Implement standard methods used in the exchange rate literature.
  • Initiate, be responsible for and carry out an independent economic analyzis.
  • Initiate collaborations.

At the seminar the student is trained independently to
- identify and clarify a problem,
- seek and select relevant literatur,
- write a academic paper,
- present and discuss own paper with the other students at the seminar.

The aim of the presentations is, that the student uses the presentation as an opportunity to practice oral skills and to receive feedback. The presentations is not a part of the exam and will not be assessed.

Mandatory activities in the seminar:
- Kick-off meeting
- Finding literatur and defining the project
- Writing process of the seminar paper
- Presentation of own project and paper
- Giving constructive feedback to another student´s paper
- Actively participating in discussions at the presentations and other meetings.

There is no weekly teaching/lecturing and the student cannot expect guidance from the teacher. If the teacher gives a few introduction lectures or gives the opportunity for guidance, this as well as other expectations are clarified at the kickoff meeting.

Process:
It is strongly recommended that you think about and search for a topic before the semester begins, as there is only a few weeks from the kick-off meeting to the submission of the project description/ agreement paper.

The seminar project paper must be uploaded in Absalon before the presentations, as the opponents and the other seminar participants have to read and comment on the paper. It is important that you upload a paper that is so finalized as possible due to the fact that the value of feedback and comments at the presentation is strongly associated with the skill level of the seminar paper.

After the presentations, you can with a few corrections improve the seminar paper by including the feedback and comments emerged during the presentations. It is NOT intended that you rewrite or begin the writing of the full project AFTER the presentation has taken place.

Students must find relevant literature themselves but will get some initial papers to start with depending on the topic. The level of the curriculum is

  • Lucio Sarno and Mark P. Taylor, (2002), The Economics of Exchange Rates, Cambridge University Press
  • Keith Pilbeam (2013), International Finance, Palgrave Macmillan both used as core curriculum in the MSc course “Economics of Exchange Rates”.
  • Another useful textbook is Martin D.D. Evans (2011), Exchange-Rate Dynamics, Princeton University Press.
  • Articles published in journals such as Journal of International Economics, Journal of Monetary Economics, Journal of International Money and Finance are useful when finding topics and background material.

 

It is recommended that the student has followed the course “Economics of Exchange Rates”, Master of Economics at Copenhagen University or has knowledge similar to its curriculum.

It is an advantage, if the student has followed any econometrics course at the MSc level at the studies of Economics at Copenhagen University, for example “Advanced Macroeconomics: Structural Vector Autoregressive Analysis” or “Financial Econometrics A”.

BSc in Economics or similar

Schedule of the seminar:

• Kick-off meeting: August 31, 2020, 13.15-15.00
• Deadline of project description: not later than October 1 at 10AM or specified by the supervisor
• Deadline of uploaded to Absalon: One week before presentation.
• Presentations: 10th and 11th of November (half-days). Exact time is agreed on at the kick-off meeting

All information regarding the seminar is communicated through Absalon including venue. So it is very important that you by yourself logon to Absalon and read the information already when you are registered at the seminar.

Oral
Individual
Collective
Peer feedback (Students give each other feedback)

 

The students receive oral feedback during the kick-off meeting and after the presentations.

The students receive individual feedback during the process of writing the seminar paper and after the presentation.

ECTS
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Written examination
A seminar paper in English that meets the formal requirements for written papers stated in the curriculum of the Master programme and at KUNet for seminars.

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Aid
All aids allowed

for the project paper.

The teacher defines the aids that must be used for the presentations.

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Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
External censorship
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Criteria for exam assessment

Students are assessed on the extent to which they master the learning outcome for the seminar and can make use of the knowledge, skills and competencies listed in the learning outcomes in the Curriculum of the Master programme.

 

To receive the top grade, the student must with no or only a few minor weaknesses be able to demonstrate an excellent performance displaying a high level of command of all aspects of the relevant material.

  • Category
  • Hours
  • Project work
  • 186
  • Seminar
  • 20
  • English
  • 206