Seminar: Financial Theory and Models (F)

Course content

We encourage students to define their own seminar content within the following broad categories:

  • Corporate Finance, ex. Capital costs, dividend policy, costly contracts.
  • Pricing of assets, ex. Interest rate models in continuous time, American put options, multi-dimensional models.
  • Imperfect capital markets, ex. Financial mediation, agency costs.
  • Equilibrium pricing, ex. Risk vulnerability, decreasing relative risk premium.
  • The instructor will assist the students in determining and defining a proper seminar subject.
Education

MSc programme in Economics

The seminar is primarily for students at the MSc of 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

After completing the seminar the student is expected to be able to fulfill the learning outcome specified in the Master curriculum and to be able to:

Knowledge:

  • Identify, describe and discuss core problems in the rigorous modeling of basic financial notions.
  • Account for the main technical tools used in a rigorous modeling of discrete and continuous time economics.
  • Account for the main concepts of financial economics.
  • Assess and discuss both benefits and deficiencies of the applied techniques and models under scrutiny.

 

Skills:

  • Correctly select and apply core models to analyze problems in finance.
  • Master the analysis of a given problem in finance by selecting and correctly applying the pertinent tools.
  • Write reports and orally present own work and analysis to a group of peers, otherwise engage in academic discussions of financial economics, assess results and deficiencies of the applied models in a broader context of economics and society.

 

Competencies:

  • Apply the acquired skills to new areas of analysis in both financial economics as well as in broader fields of economics.
  • Apply and modify the studied tools and methods in new situations.
  • Apply the asquired skills as stepping stones to more advanced models and topics in finance and economics.

 

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.

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.

The aim of the presentations is, that you use the presentation as an opportunity to practice oral skills and to receive feedback at the paper. The presentations are not a part of the exam and will not be assessed.

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.
The teacher defines what materials may be used for the presentations.

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 seminar paper after the presentation has taken place.

Pandemic:
In case of a pandemic like Corona the teaching in this seminar may be changed to be taught either fully or partly online. For further information, see the course room on Absalon.

  • Tomas Björk. Arbitrage Theory in Continuous Time. Oxford Finance Series, 3rd ed.
  • John C. Hull. Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives. Pearson, Prentice Hall, 8th ed. 2012.
  • Copeland/Weston. Financial Theory and Corporate Policy. Addison-Wesley.
  • Jonathan Berk and Peter DeMarzo. Corporate Finance, 5th ed., Pearson 2019.
  • Emanuel Derman and Michael B. Miller. The volatility Smile, Wiley Finance 2016.
  • David Lando. Credit Risk Modeling. Theory and Applications. Princeton University Press.
  • Frank Hansen. Decreasing relative risk premium. The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics 7(1), article 37, 2007.

The seminar is based on the course “Financial Theory and Models” but broadens the subject by including topics from microeconomics. The student will benefit from having attended the course “Financial Theory and Models” before taking the seminar.

BSc in Economics or similar

Schedule:

Spring 2021:

• Kick-Off meeting: Thursday, 11 February at 12:15-13:00
• Deadline for submitting commitmentpaper/ project description: Not later than March 1st or as specified by the lecturer.
• Deadline of seminar paper uploaded to Absalon: Not later than one week before the presentations or as specified by the lecturer.
• The presentation-meetings: In the period May 1st to 23th. Exact dates are made in agreement at the Kick-Off meeting.

General information:

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.

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.

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
Feedback by final exam (In addition to the grade)
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 and at KUNet for seminars.
_____
Aid
All aids allowed

for the seminar paper.

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

____

Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
External censorship
_____
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