This course has two main goals. First, to introduce students to the frontier of research in the field of investments. In addition to traditional topics such as recursive utility, asset allocation and option pricing, we will spend some time on applications of real options on investments and corporate finance. The reading list will be distributed in the first day of the class.
The second goal of the course is to prepare students to write research papers in the field of investments and corporate finance. Students have to turn in a final paper on a topic of their choice. By the end of the course, hopefully students will learn what it takes to write a paper, the types of assumptions we need to make in order to solve theoretical models, how to implement numerical simulations, and how we justify the models’ predictions with empirical data.
This course is intended for doctoral students. Students should be familiar with the materials covered in the first year required “Capital Market” course.