AØKK08434U Seminar: Finance: Theory and Applications (F)

Volume 2023/2024
Content

Students may for their papers choose between 1) mainly theoretical/modelling and/or 2) practical empirical approaches.

 

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

 

  1. Topics for mainly theoretical approaches may include (primary supervisor Frank Hansen):
  • Capital markets- institutions, instruments, and risk management.
  • 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.
  1. Topics for mainly practical empirical approaches may include (primary supervisor Søren Hovgaard):
  • Capital Markets – institutions, instruments, and risk management.
  • Ownership and governance models such as concentrated or disbursed publicly listed ownership, private equity, family ownership, and commercial foundations (“erhvervsdrivende fonde”).
  • Governance, returns, incentives, regulation, financial valuations, legal structures
  • Costs- and benefits of financial market regulation with professional agents (vs. protection of retail investors) as main actors
  • Mergers & acquisitions, initial and secondary public offerings- and other equity capital market transactions
  • Economic value creation through financial engineering, operational improvements, and multiple expansion

 

The instructors will assist the students in determining and defining a proper seminar subject.

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 and/or the practical implementation of corporate finance and corporate governance.
  • Account for the main technical tools used in a rigorous modeling of discrete and continuous time economics and/or
  • Demonstrate ability to use, and/or apply the main concepts of financial economics and corporate finance.
  • Assess and discuss both benefits and deficiencies of the applied techniques, methodologies, and models as applicable.

Skills:

  • Correctly select and apply core models/concepts to analyze problems in finance, and/or corporate finance, and governance.
  • Master the analysis of a given problem 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, corporate finance, and governance; assess results and deficiencies of the applied models/​approaches/​methodologies in a broader context of the economy and society.

 

Competencies:

  • Apply the acquired skills to new areas of analysis in both financial economics, corporate finance, and corporate governance as well as in broader fields of economics and business.
  • Apply and modify the studied tools and methods in new situations.
  • Apply the acquired skills as steppingstones to more advanced models/approaches and topics in finance and economics.
  • 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 J. Fabozzi. Capital Markets – institutions, instruments, and risk management. MIT Press, 5th ed.
  • Market Liquidity: Theory Evidence and Policy. Oxford University Press, 2013.
  • Frank Hansen. Decreasing relative risk premium. The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics 7(1), article 37, 2007.
  • Any newer article from Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies.
  • Nordic Corporate Governance, several authors, Stockholm School of Economics Institute for Research, 2016.
  • Corporate Governance – Mechanisms and Systems, Steen Thomsen % Martin Conyon, McGraw-Hill International/DJØF Publishing 2012 (or later).
  • Private Equity – Transactions, Contracts and Regulation, Thomas Krüger Andersen, DJØF Publishing 2015 (or later).
  • The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits (umich.edu)
  • Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Peter F. Drucker, Elsevier, 2004 (or later).
  • The Nordic Corporate Governance Model, Per Lekvall (ed.), SNS Forlag, 2014.
  • Coming Soon: Global Private Equity Report 2023 | Bain & Company.

Overview of sustainable finance (europa.eu)

Completed BSc in Economics or similar. Completed courses as suggested under section: “Relation to subjects and courses”, would be extremely useful.
Seminar
Relation to subjects and courses: Financial decision making; Financial Theory and Models, Asset Pricing Theory, Corporate Finance, Behavioural Finance, Economics of Banking, Private Equity, Venture Capital, Accounting, Corporate Law.
Similar courses from other KU faculties and/or other accredited institutions

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Autumn 2023

- Kick-off meeting: Week 36

- Deadline for submission of commitment paper / project description: No later than 1 October.
1 october

- Deadline for uploading a seminar assignment paper in the Digital Exam portal: No later than one week before the presentations.

- Presentations: 20 November - 11 December

- Exam date: 20 December at 10.00 AM - latest uploading of Seminar paper to the Digital Exam portal for assessment.

- Deadline for assessment: 24 January

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

Spring 2024

- Kick-off meeting: Week 6

- Deadline for submission of commitment paper / project description: No later than 1 March

- Deadline for uploading a seminar assignment paper in the Digital Exam portal: No later than one week before the presentations.

- Presentations: 1-23 May

- Exam date: 1 June at 10.00 AM - latest uploading of Seminar paper to the Digital Exam portal for assessment.

- Deadline for assessment: 29 June

All information regarding the seminar is communicated through Absalon including venue. It is very important that you by yourself log on to Absalon and read the information already when you are registered at the seminar.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Project work
  • 186
  • Seminar
  • 20
  • Total
  • 206
Continuous feedback during the course of the semester

The feedback is mainly given during and after the seminar presentations. It will cover both content and form of the seminar paper. The instructor is also available for discussions and help during the preparation of the seminar paper.

Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Written assignment
Type of assessment details
Written assignemnt
Aid

Use of AI tools is permitted. You must explain how you have used the tools. When text is solely or mainly generated by an AI tool, the tool used must be quoted as a source.

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

Grade 12 is given for an outstanding performance: the student lives up to the course's goal description in an independent and convincing manner with no or few and minor shortcomings

Grade 7 is given for a good performance: the student is confidently able to live up to the goal description, albeit with several shortcomings

Grade 02 is given for an adequate performance: the minimum acceptable performance in which the student is only able to live up to the goal description in an insecure and incomplete manner