New SHS course: Foundations in financial economics

• Can you give a short description of the content of the course?

What are the rules companies use to decide to launch new products? What is the difference between bonds, shares, and derivatives? What are the key tradeoffs one needs to be aware of before one invests money in the stock market? How can you be sure that the portfolio manager you hire will make decisions that are in your best interest? What is the role of information in markets, and how can you detect whether the market includes informed traders?

• Why should a student follow this course?

If you are intrigued by these questions, and would like to learn more about finance, you should consider taking the course “Foundations of Financial Economics” offered in the newly designed management, economics, and finance track you can take as part of the SHS program. Three finance professors of EPFL—including two polysphere winners—have joined forces to answer these and more questions in their course, entirely taught in English.

• What style of teaching will it be?

The course will be organized around six themes that are each covered over two or three weeks from two different angles. Within each module, we will start by introducing the theme and the main economic questions that it raises, and relate these questions to real-world examples. Then we will show students how one can construct a model that formalizes the key tradeoffs that underlie the theme and which allows to provide qualitative and quantitative answers to the questions that it raises. Group assignments on real world data or business cases will determine your grade.

• Curious?

Check out the study plan

Prof. Ruediger Fahlenbrach

Professor of Finance

Swiss Finance Institute @EPFL

Prof. Julien Hugonnier

Professor of Finance

Swiss Finance Institute @EPFL

Prof. Pierre Collin-Dufresne

Professor of finance

Swiss Finance Institute @EPFL