Lecture

Foundations of Financial Economics

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In course

MGT-301: Foundations in financial economics

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 ...

Description

This lecture covers the fundamentals of financial economics, focusing on topics such as corporate governance, time value of money, net present value, and agency problems. It discusses the importance of shareholder interests, the role of managers in maximizing NPV, and solutions to agency problems through corporate governance mechanisms.

Instructors (3)

Pierre Collin-Dufresne

Rüdiger Fahlenbrach

RUEDIGER FAHLENBRACH is Full Professor at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. Formerly on the faculty of the Fisher College of Business of the Ohio State University (USA), he holds a Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Pennsylvania (Wharton). He holds a senior research chair from the Swiss Finance Institute, and is research member at the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI). He has research interests in empirical corporate finance, in particular corporate governance and entrepreneurship. Ruediger Fahlenbrach has published in the leading academic journals in finance, including the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Review of Financial Studies and the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis. Ruediger currently serves a three year term as elected director of the European Finance Association (2018-2020). He is Associate Editor of the Review of Finance, and former associate editor of the Review of Financial Studies and Financial Management. His research has been reported in many large-circulation newspapers such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Le Temps, NZZ, Handelsblatt, Forbes Magazine, USA Today, and Fortune Magazine.

Julien Hugonnier

Expertise Asset pricing theory, incomplete markets and financial frictions, general equilibrium theory, decision making under uncertainty Teaching & PhD PhD Students Luca Pagliuca, Darius Nik Nejad Past EPFL PhD Students Rodolfo Javier Prieto Katunaric, Michael Hasler, Giuliano Antonio Curatola, Julien Cujean, Thomas Antonius Geelen, Nicolas Gauderon, Benoit Vincent Sylvain Cornet Past EPFL PhD Students as codirector Rémy Praz, Cagil Kocyigit, Alexis Marchal Courses Derivatives FIN-404 Thi

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Business

Finance: Corporate finance

Related concepts (32)

Financial economics

Financial economics is the branch of economics characterized by a "concentration on monetary activities", in which "money of one type or another is likely to appear on both sides of a trade". Its concern is thus the interrelation of financial variables, such as share prices, interest rates and exchange rates, as opposed to those concerning the real economy. It has two main areas of focus: asset pricing and corporate finance; the first being the perspective of providers of capital, i.e.

Shareholder value

Shareholder value is a business term, sometimes phrased as shareholder value maximization. It became prominent during the 1980s and 1990s along with the management principle value-based management or "managing for value". The term "shareholder value", sometimes abbreviated to "SV", can be used to refer to: The market capitalization of a company; The concept that the primary goal for a company is to increase the wealth of its shareholders (owners) by paying dividends and/or causing the stock price to increase (i.

Capitalism

Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price systems, private property, property rights recognition, voluntary exchange, and wage labor. In a market economy, decision-making and investments are determined by owners of wealth, property, or ability to maneuver capital or production ability in capital and financial markets—whereas prices and the distribution of goods and services are mainly determined by competition in goods and services markets.

Capitalist state

The capitalist state is the state, its functions and the form of organization it takes within capitalist socioeconomic systems. This concept is often used interchangeably with the concept of the modern state. Despite their common functions, there are many recognized differences in sociological characteristics among capitalist states. The primary functions of the capitalist state are to provide a legal framework and infrastructural framework conducive to business enterprise and the accumulation of capital.

Investment management

Investment management (sometimes referred to more generally as asset management) is the professional asset management of various securities, including shareholdings, bonds, and other assets, such as real estate, to meet specified investment goals for the benefit of investors. Investors may be institutions, such as insurance companies, pension funds, corporations, charities, educational establishments, or private investors, either directly via investment contracts/mandates or via collective investment schemes like mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, or REITs.

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