The mission of the Stanford Graduate School of Business is to create ideas that deepen and advance the understanding of management, and with these ideas, develop innovative, principled, and insightful leaders who change the world. The two-year Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) degree program prepares change agents to make a meaningful impact in the world through leadership of business, government, and social-sector organizations. The general management curriculum rests on a foundation of social science principles and management functions, tailored to each student’s background and aspirations. Interdisciplinary themes of critical analytical thinking, creativity and innovation, and personal leadership development differentiate the Stanford M.B.A.

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Student undertakes a global experience to provide direct exposure to the world’s opportunities. A allows Stanford students to combine the M.B.A. With degrees in the Graduate School of Education (M.A.), the School of Engineering (M.S. In C.S., M.S. In E.E.), the Stanford Law School (J.D.) as well as interdisciplinary degrees in Public Policy (M.P.P.) and in Environment and Resources (M.S.). Dual Degree programs are offered with the School of Medicine (M.D./M.B.A) and the program in International Policy Studies (M.A.

In IPS/M.B.A). The primary criteria for admission are intellectual vitality, demonstrated leadership potential, and personal qualities and contributions. No specific undergraduate major or courses are required for admission, but experience with analytic and quantitative concepts is important. Almost all students obtain one or more years of work experience before entering, but a few students enroll directly following undergraduate study. The Stanford Master of Science in Management for Experienced Leaders Program (MSx) is an intensive, one-year course of study for middle-management executives leading to the degree of Master of Science in management.

Participants generally have eight or more years of work experience, with at least five years of management experience. Some students are sponsored by their company, but most are self-sponsored. The Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) degree program is designed to develop outstanding scholars for careers in research and teaching in various fields of study associated with business education. Students focus on one of seven discrete areas of study including accounting, economic analysis and policy, finance, marketing, operations information and technology, organizational behavior, and political economy.

For detailed information on programs, curricula, and faculty, see the web site. Financial Accounting. Financial accounting is the measurement of economic activity for decision-making.

Financial statements are a key product of this measurement process and an important component of firms' financial reporting activities. The objective of this course is not to train you to become an accountant but rather to help you develop into an informed user of financial statement information. While financial statement users face a wide variety of decisions, they are often interested in understanding the implications of financial statement information for the future cash flows and earnings potential of a firm. We will focus on understanding the mapping between underlying economic events and financial statements, and on understanding how this mapping affects inferences about future profitability and liquidity. The following learning objectives will be emphasized: (1) familiarity with the transactions businesses engage in, (2) fluency in accounting terminology, (3) understanding the structure that maps transactions into accounting numbers, (4) understanding the rationale for various accounting methods, and (5) awareness of the judgment involved and the discretion allowed in choosing accounting methods, making estimates, and disclosing information in financial statements.

Managerial Accounting: Base. This course provides an introduction to the concepts and tools of managerial accounting.

The first part of the course covers alternative costing methods and illustrates how the resulting cost information can be used to analyze the profitability of individual products and customers. The second part of the course will examine the role of internal accounting systems in evaluating the performance of individual business segments and divisions of the firm. Included in this part are topics related to the choice of internal pricing methods for transferring goods and services across divisions of the firm and the use of financial metrics for assessing the profitability of these divisions.

Financial Accounting - Accelerated. This course develops students' ability to read, understand, and use corporate financial statements. The course is oriented toward the user of financial accounting data (rather than the preparer) and emphasizes the reconstruction and interpretation of economic events from published accounting reports. The course is geared toward students with some familiarity in dealing with financial statement information and allows for deeper coverage and discussion in class. MSx: Accounting.

A characteristic of business is the extensive use of accounting data. The financial accounting course has the general objective of developing students' understanding of the nature, scope, and limitations of accounting information. To achieve this objective the course attempts to: (1) develop students' understanding of the conceptual accounting framework, including the objectives of financial reporting, and (2) develop students' ability to understand and critically evaluate the financial disclosures made by corporations. An issue of particular interest will be the managerial incentive aspects of accounting information and disclosures.

Global Financial Reporting. This course is designed to enhance students' understanding of current financial reporting issues through a detailed analysis and comparison of U.S. And International Financial Reporting Standards. The course will cover the development of accounting standards, implementation of these standards, and how to interpret output from these standards. Html Projects For College Students Free Download. The course highlights intermediate and advanced financial reporting topics including fair value accounting, asset securitization, consolidation including special purpose entities, foreign currency translation, derivatives and hedging, leases, revenue recognition, pensions, and equity compensation. The course also focuses on evaluating emerging financial reporting issues such as proposed financial reporting standards put forth by U.S.

Or international standard setting bodies. This course should help students better understand the environment governing global financial reporting and how firms develop financial statement information within this environment. Accounting-Based Valuation. This course is designed to develop students' ability to interpret and use financial accounting information in an equity valuation context. The perspective taken is that of an outsider relying on publicly available financial information for investment purposes.

The course relies heavily upon financial statement analysis tools and the residual income framework for equity valuation. Through lectures, in-depth case studies, and real-time exercises, the first half of the course covers traditional financial statement analysis-based tools for critically analyzing and assessing a firm's current financial performance and economic condition, including ratio analysis, accounting quality analysis and financial distress / bankruptcy prediction models. The second half of the course introduces the accounting-based valuation framework and develops the link between financial statement analysis, forecasting and equity valuation.

The capstone to the course is the completion of a comprehensive, real-time valuation of a publicly traded firm (or registered IPO candidate). The course is structured for students to gain a deeper understanding of the economic pressures behind the valuation creation and valuation process, and will be useful to those students who anticipate making investment or credit decisions at least partially based on historical and prospective financial statement information. Managerial Accounting: Performance Measurement, Compensation, and Governance. The course will examine the academic and professional controversies surrounding corporate governance and executive compensation. A basic framework will be developed to integrate the many important dimensions of corporate governance in the U.S.

And international settings. The institutional features of corporate governance and executive compensation will be documented using the professional business and legal literatures. In addition, the scientific research in accounting, economics, finance, and organizational behavior will be used to provide insights into the measurement and consequences of observed corporate governance and executive compensation choices. After successfully finishing the course, a student should be able to (i) understand the debates about appropriate choices for corporate governance and executive compensation and (ii) critically evaluate the implications of academic and professional research studies on these controversial issues. Mergers and Acquisitions.

This course provides a comprehensive overview of strategic, economic, accounting and financial issues related to mergers and acquisitions. Specifically, we review the market for corporate control, discuss strategic and governance issues related to firms' decision to acquire or be acquired, and examine the M&A regulatory environment. We analyze various pricing and deal structure considerations, identify strategies that underlay a successful negotiation, and review the financial reporting and income tax implications of M&A deals.nnIn covering these and other related issues, we will discuss both the theory and practice of mergers and acquisitions. To provide some specific context we will analyze several M&A deals (e.g., Google/Motorola, HP/Compaq, UpJohn/Pharmacia, AOL/Time Warner, Oracle/PeopleSoft, and many more). In discussing these cases, we will examine the situation faced by the company, the issues surrounding the transaction, including the financial reporting implications, and focus on the managerial incentives and the judgment applied. We will also review some of the related literature in accounting, economic, and finance, to gain broader perspectives and insights into the financial issues associated with M&A transactions.

Class time comprises mini lectures that introduce some of the more technical concepts, case discussions, and guest speakers who will offer additional perspectives on the subject matters.nnThe course is co-taught by Ron Kasznik (GSB) and Safra Catz (Oracle Corporation). Catz is the CEO of Oracle Corporation and a member of its Board of Directors. She has led Oracle through more than 100 acquisitions in recent years (including PeopleSoft, Siebel, BEA, Sun Microsystems, and many more). Prior to joining Oracle in 1999, Ms. Catz was Managing Director at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, a global investment bank (now part of CSFB). Catz also serves on the board of directors for HSBC Holdings plc. Taxes and Business Strategy.

Traditional business courses analyze an array of factors affecting business decisions but provide little systematic consideration of the role of taxes. By contrast, tax accounting courses traditionally concentrate on technical legal and administrative issues while ignoring the environment in which taxes enter an individual's or firm's decision. This case-based course intends to bridge this gap by providing a framework for recognizing how taxes affect strategic personal and business decisions and gaining experience analyzing a wide range of tax-related issues. The key themes of the framework - all parties, all taxes and all costs - are applied to decision contexts such as investments, retirement planning, cash and equity compensation, organizational form, tax planning for multiple jurisdictions, and M&A. The goal of this course is to provide an approach to thinking about taxes that will be valuable across jurisdictions even as laws change. Alphanomics: Informational Arbitrage in Equity Markets. This is an advanced elective course on the economics of active investing in public equity markets.

We will cover a set of foundational skills needed to select, and manage, a portfolio of public stocks. NSpecifically, the course material is designed to improve student skills in: (1) assessing the relative attractiveness of individual companies, (2) building stock screens to filter and rank firms based on user-specified parameters, (3) buying and shorting individual equity positions, and (4) monitoring and managing portfolio risk. NThis is a hands-on course with an emphasis on experiential learning. Students will make extensive use of the analytical tools. Some of the classes will be held in the 'Real-time Analytics and Investment Lab' (R.A.I.L.) facility in the Bass Center.

There is no final exam. However, there will be a number of individual cases and a final group project. 25% of the grade will be based on class participation, and 75% will be based on cases and projects. NBecause it is an advanced elective, students taking this class are expected to be well versed in core economic, accounting, and finance skills. Material covered in a second Financial Modeling course, as well as in Accounting 312 (Evaluating Financial Statement Information) and Accounting 313 (Accounting-based Valuation) will come in handy. However, none of these courses are required.

Analysis and Valuation for Event-Driven Investing. This Bass seminar is designed to develop students' ability to interpret and use financial accounting information in credit and equity valuation contexts. The course will focus on valuing the securities of companies undergoing significant changes as a result of litigation, restructuring, regulatory changes, mergers, spin-offs or significant industry shifts.

Throughout the course, students will (1) enrich their understanding of how alternative economic, legal, political and regulatory outcomes affect the value of various components of a company's capital structure and (2) develop their ability to apply financial statement analysis to assess the likelihood and valuation implications of the events of interest. NnEvent-driven investing follows the life cycle of companies as they revamp their corporate structures in response to economic and regulatory environments. For example, in rising economic periods companies may undertake acquisitions or spin off divisions to enhance shareholder value. During adverse environments, bankruptcy and reorganizations often reshape the capital structure by offering opportunities to create value through the restructuring process. During economic transitions, debt and equity investors may make significantly different assessments of the quality of a company's earnings, its assets, and its likelihood to meet its debt obligations. To assess the probability of corporate events, investors must make judgments about the quality of a company's earnings and assets and understand how accounting policies may influence management's representations. Investors must also interpret how accounting policies function at various points in a firm's life cycle, influencing the quality of earnings for firms differently in different economic environments.

NnIn the first half of the course, we will develop the course framework, and apply it to illustrative cases. Companies featured in past years include Tyco, AIG, CIT, Fannie Mae, Tesla, Pharmasset and Gilead and Commerzbank. Students will interpret information from companies' public financial disclosures to assess the likelihood of different events or outcomes.

The course will also feature readings on current accounting standards, articles from the popular press, publicly available financial statement information, and guest speakers with in-depth knowledge of investing strategies vis a vis the case companies. NnThe latter part of the course will be devoted to project work, with students working in teams to develop an event-driven investing strategy. The aim is to allow students to conduct independent research on a company, industry, economic context, or financial reporting environment of particular interest. Students will develop their investment idea, articulate their sense of the possible outcomes for the components of the firm's capital structure, and explain how they have assessed the likelihood and valuation consequences of those outcomes. At the conclusion of the course, students will present their strategies to the class and a panel of expert judges. Analysis and Valuation of Emerging Market Firms.

This course examines the unique institutional, governance and transparency issues affecting corporate valuations in emerging markets. Through lectures, case discussions and the students' real-time analysis of an emerging market firm, this condensed course is structured for students to gain a deeper understanding of the economic pressures behind the value creation, value destruction and valuation process in emerging economies. The course focuses on critically interpreting financial and non-financial information for purposes of assessing firm fundamentals and corporate governance risk in the presence of weak legal systems, strong political forces, limited investor protections, limited market development, strong macro-economic forces, opacity and resultant business arrangements. The course is beneficial for entrepreneurs, consultants, investors and managers operating in or considering expansion to developing markets. Board Governance.

This course is focused on helping students understand the role boards and board members play in corporate governance and the lives of businesses large and small. This case-driven course is designed to help students who plan to serve on boards as private-equity or venture investors, entrepreneurs who will need to assemble and manage boards, and executives who realize they will need to interact with and answer to boards.nThe course is designed to help students understand the issues boards face - both routine and non-routine - through the eyes of the board member. By understanding the roles and responsibilities of board members and the mechanisms though which they exercise these duties, students will come away with an understanding of how boards function effectively (and in too many cases fail to function effectively). The course will include examining boards in a variety of contexts with a focus on three types of situations: public for-profit companies, early-stage private companies, and not-for-profit companies of different sizes. Individual Taxes and Financial Planning.

The goal of this course is to provide a fundamental understanding of the principles of taxation and tax planning as they relate to personal income taxes and considering an individuals financial position. Traditional business courses analyze an array of factors affecting business decisions but provide little systematic consideration of the role of taxes in individual financial planning decisions. By contrast, tax accounting courses traditionally concentrate on technical legal and administrative issues while ignoring the environment in which taxes enter an individual's decision-making. This case-based course intends to bridge this gap by discussing how taxes affect a variety of personal financial planning decisions. Corporate Taxes and Business Strategy. The goal of this course is to provide a fundamental understanding of the principles of business taxation and tax planning, which will be relevant and valuable even as tax laws change - over time, across borders, and by taxpayer type.

The role that taxes may play in business decisions are presented within an 'all taxes, all parties, all costs' framework, from the tax issues at start-up (e.g., the choice of organizational form for a new venture), multistate and multinational operations, financial accounting implications, and mergers and acquisitions. We will use cases to gain hands' on experience analyzing business tax strategies and refer to financial statement disclosures as appropriate so that you can learn how taxes affect the financial reporting for transactions. A recurring theme will be linking the tax strategies that we learn with concepts from corporate finance, financial accounting, business law, and economics.

Financial Reporting and Management Control. This course is aimed at doctoral students in accounting and neighboring fields including economics, finance, political economics and operations management. The course seeks to provide an introduction to the role of accounting information in (i) measuring firm performance, (ii) projecting profitability and firm value for external constituents, (iii) and motivating and controlling the firm's management. The main topics covered in this course include: 1. Profitability Measurement and Accrual Accounting. Performance Evaluation and Managerial Incentives. Accounting-based Equity Valuation.

The Informational Role of Accounting Numbers 5. Earnings Quality Constructs and Measures. The primary objective of the course is to introduce students to current research paradigms on these topics and to identify promising avenues for future research. The course readings include recent theoretical and empirical papers. Seminar in Empirical Accounting Research.

Empirical Research on Financial Reporting: This doctoral-level course covers research on the role of accounting information in capital markets. The focus is on introducing students to key themes in empirical accounting and capital markets research, and to key research designs applied to examine information-related questions. Course topics include the informational role of financial reports, accounting measurement attributes, earnings management, earnings quality, and the role of key actors in the financial reporting environment, including management, investors, auditors, analysts and regulators. N nThe course is interdisciplinary in nature. The readings focus on research design, and key theories, themes and approaches from the accounting, finance, economics and psychology literature. Our overall goal is develop your understanding of existing research and its strengths and limitations, and to identify new research opportunities. Applications of Information Economics in Management and Accounting.

This course develops tools from information economics to study the strategic interactions between agents inside a firm and between firm insiders and market participants. Common to these studies is that agents acquire private information that is valuable to other parties. The range of applications includes: the structure of managerial performance measures, buyer-supplier contracting arrangements, earnings management, voluntary and mandatory disclosure and financial analysts.

Financial Reporting Seminar. The purpose of this PhD seminar is to facilitate your conception and execution of substantive individual research in financial reporting. It provides a vehicle for supplementing and integrating your knowledge of basic research tools and methods, as well as an exposure to the dimensions of contemporary research in the field of financial reporting.

The focus of the research we will discuss in this seminar is on global financial reporting. Such research encompasses studies dealing with contemporary financial reporting issues as well as research addressing issues relating to the globalization of financial reporting. Because these issues are also of concern to financial reporting standard setters, we will discuss whether and how the research we study informs standard setting debates. Prerequisite: Consent of the instructor.

Selected Topics in Empirical Accounting Research. This course examines selected topics in accounting research. The course features three faculty who will each give a focused look at a given area, introduce students to important questions in that area, key papers in the related literature, and critical aspects of the research designs applied in the area. The aim is to increase student's familiarity with empirical accounting research, their ability to critically evaluate research and research designs, and to prepare students to conduct independent research. Applications of Contract Theory in Accounting Research. This course develops tools from information economics to study the strategic interactions between different agents inside a firm.

Common to these studies is that agents acquire private information that is valuable to other parties. The range of applications includes: the structure of managerial performance measures, capital budgeting, intra-company pricing, discretionary bonus pools, the role of non-financial performance indicators and earnings management.

Market Efficiency and Informational Arbitrage. The informational efficiency of stock markets has been a central theme in financial economic research in the past 50 years. Over this period, the focus of academic research has gradually shifted from the general to the more specific. While earlier studies tend to view the matter as a yes/no debate, most recent studies acknowledge the impossibility of fully efficient markets, and focus instead on analyses of factors that materially affect the timely incorporation of information into prices. At the same time, increasing attention is being paid to regulatory and market design issues that either impede or enhance market pricing efficiency.nIn this course, we will cover recent research on the role of informational arbitrage in asset pricing.

Our starting point is the observation that, with costly information, equilibrium prices will invariably reflect some mispricing. The existence of mispricing introduces a role for informational arbitrage, whereby some traders will invest resources to become informed about the mispricing, with hopes of profiting from it. We review recent academic evidence on this process, and reflect on its implications for future market-related research.

We will also discuss how academic research might help lower information/arbitrage costs.nThis is a doctoral level course. Our goal is not only to review existing research, but also to stimulate new work in the area. As such, I expect it will be of primary interest to Ph.D. Students majoring in accounting, finance, and economics. Given our focus on returns prediction and the role of information in arbitrage strategies, this course should be of particular interest to those interested exploring the relation between information flows and market pricing dynamics.

NThe course content is interdisciplinary in nature, spanning finance, economics, and accounting. Most of the readings in the earlier readings derive from finance and economics (market efficiency, limits to arbitrage, and behavioral finance); most of the later readings derive from financial accounting (equity valuation, fundamental analysis, earnings management, and analyst behavior). Managerial Economics - Accelerated. Uses the same math as 200 (derivatives and algebra, and not much more) but uses it more often. Previous economics is not necessary, but it does help to be comfortable with simple mathematical models. The business world has become more quantitative and economics-oriented in the last 30 years, but many of the key ideas in economics, relating to topics such as pricing, monopoly, imperfect competition, game theory, moral hazard and adverse selection, public choice, externalities, risk aversion, capital market pricing and equilibrium, and auction theory can all be usefully approached with this relatively small amount of math. The key is for students to develop the small number of intellectual tools that enables one to analyze a wide variety of economic problems.

Growth and Stabilization in the Global Economy. This course gives students the background they need to understand the broad movements in the global economy. Key topics include long-run economic growth, technological change, wage inequality, international trade, interest rates, inflation, exchange rates, and monetary policy. By the end of the course, students should be able to read and understand the discussions of economic issues in The Economist, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, or the Congressional Budget Office. Business and Public Policy Perspectives on U.S. This class will analyze the growth in inequality in the US over the last several decades and how that trend is likely to continue or change in the future. We will ask if and how public policy can affect inequality.

We will also focus on business's role -- what are the responsibilities of private sector companies, how does inequality affect them, and how should the growth in inequality affect their strategies? We will look at inequality in income, some of its potential sources, and its effects in other areas. Specifically, we will look at education, housing, the social safety net, migration, and the job market. The class will be very interactive and will be based on readings drawn from academic research, case studies, news, and opinion readings. We will also have guest speakers from industry, government, and non-profits.

The class will be co-taught by a GSB labor economist and an advisor to policy makers with decades of business experience.nnLOGISTICAL NOTE: The class will not meet on May 23 or May 25. Instead, there will be a mandatory, all-day class field trip to explore inequality issues in depth and in person on Wednesday, May 24. If you have an academic-related reason you cannot make the trip, we will assign alternative work. However, the trip is required unless you have a conflicting class or academic obligation.

The Evolution of Finance. This course provides a framework to understand how uncertainty and technology affect the evolution of finance (and businesses generally), and its illustration with heavy emphasis on recent developments and future trends. In recent years Myron Scholes has given about half the lectures with the other half given by prominent guests. The guest list changes year to year but 2016's list included David Booth, Howard Marks, Martin Chavez, James Manyika, Kevin Warsh, Tom Kempner, and Larry Summers. Smart Pricing and Market Design. This course is an Advanced Applications option in the Economics menu.

The focus of the course is on pricing mechanisms and the design of marketplaces. The pricing component of the course will handle both traditional topics, such as price differentiation, and more modern ones, such as dynamic pricing. In the market design component of the course, we will consider such topics as auctions (e.g., designing auctions for selling online advertising slots) and matching (e.g., designing mechanisms for matching students to schools). Measuring Impact in Practice. This class will provide students practical skills for measuring impact in business and social enterprise, with a principal focus on evaluating, conducting, and analyzing experiments and quasi-experiments. How large is the impact of raising prices on sales?

Is an advertising campaign working? Does a non-profit actually improve people's lives? Students will finish the course with the ability to design, analyze, and skeptically evaluate experiments that can rigorously answer questions like these. Students will learn: how to evaluate claims of causality; how to conduct and analyze experiments and quasi-experiments; the advantages and disadvantages of experiments; how to quantify uncertainty; and what can go wrong in experiments. Students will acquire a conceptual understanding of basic experimental statistics to inform these skills.

Students will also be exposed to how leading companies, researchers, and social innovators strategically deploy experiments. Finally, students will conduct their own experiments on a topic of their choosing in small groups. The class will not assume any prior statistical or mathematical training. Completing short problem sets will require acquiring basic knowledge of R. Alan Silvestri Predator Soundtrack Download there. Platform Competition in Digital Markets. This class will analyze the economics of digital platform markets.

The class format will consist of lectures and guest speakers. Concepts will be presented in the context of leading examples of internet and technology platforms such as online advertising, computing technology platforms (e.g. Mobile), marketplaces, social networks, cloud computing, and financial technology platforms.

The course will begin with economic definitions of platform markets, and it will review the most important insights from recent research in economic theory and strategy. It will then consider the role of scale economies and network effects in determining the dynamics of platform competition and long-run industry structure. Next, the class will consider key strategic decisions for firms, including entry strategies, vertical integration and exclusive deals.

This class will provide an overview of the rapidly evolving area of distributed ledger and blockchain technologies, with a focus on economic and strategic issues. We will cover key components of the architecture that affect the products derived from cryptocurrency.

We then consider tokens as a store of value and exchange, analyzing models of cryptocurrency pricing and as a vehicle for raising of capital. Next, we consider use cases including payments, micropayments, asset registries, and smart contracts. We then analyze barriers to entry in cryptocurrencies, as well as how the new products they enable affect industry structure in both the financial sector and the economy and society as a whole. For example, how might decentralized systems like the blockchain impact the sharing economy? The government?

We consider the governance of these decentralized systems and how decentralization affects the potential for the management and success of platforms. We discuss the potential for national digital currencies and the end of cash. Finally, we consider consumer protection, privacy, security, regulation, and the power of governments and regulators over borderless, decentralized systems. Students will benefit from guest lectures by industry and thought leaders. Inclusive Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction in Developing Countries.

Poverty rates have fallen markedly in countries around the world, as more households have joined the lower middle-class. Indeed, though U.S.

Income inequality has increased, inequality has fallen around the world. However, by developed country standards, poverty remains pervasive. What has caused the decline in rates of poverty and can we expect further decreases or can we act to accelerate the improvements?

One answer is that countries that have experienced 'inclusive growth', in which the growth of the economy (i.e., GDP) has elevated the incomes of the poor, have done better at creating jobs for the poor, especially in the private sector. Therefore, the class will consider the evidence on the factors that have contributed to inclusive economic growth in developing countries. A second answer as to why poverty has fallen, but remains at high levels, is that governments and aid agencies and foundations have targeted programs to the poor. This course discusses macroeconomic policy, targeted government policies, aid, and entrepreneurship in developing countries. Examples will be given from Latin America, South Asia, and Africa. The course is co-taught by a Stanford economist and a World Bank consultant and will build on examples from recent experiences. The class is aimed at GSB students who are either intellectually curious about the topic or anticipate doing business in developing countries.

Business and Public Policy Perspectives on U.S. This class will analyze the growth in inequality in the US over the last several decades and how that trend is likely to continue or change in the future. We will ask if and how public policy can affect inequality. We will also focus on business's role -- what are the responsibilities of private sector companies, how does inequality affect them, and how should the growth in inequality affect their strategies? We will look at inequality in income, some of its potential sources, and its effects in other areas.

Specifically, we will look at education, housing, the social safety net, migration, and the job market. The class will be very interactive and will be based on readings drawn from academic research, case studies, news, and opinion readings. We will also have guest speakers from industry, government, and non-profits.

The class will be co-taught by a GSB labor economist and an advisor to policy makers with decades of business experience (see http://www.ppic.org/main/bio2.asp?i=431). Statistical Experimentation in Businesses.

Most statistical questions involving data ultimately are about causal effects. What is the effect of changing prices on demand? What is the effect of an advertising campaign on demand. In this course we discuss statistical methods for analyzing causal effects. We look at the analysis and design of randomized experiments.

We also look at various methods that have been used to establish causal effects in observational studies. Students will develop the skills to assess causal claims and learn to ask the right questions and evaluate statistical analyses.

You will carry out research projects and work with statistical software. Data Driven Decision Making. This is a short course on data driven decision making. The purpose of the course is to help students become intelligent consumers and producers of data analytics in the business context. Each class meeting will consider a different case/caselet involving data and statistical analyses. We will spend a lot of time on understanding the difference between correlation and causation, and measurement issues such as small sample problems and selection bias.

By the end of the course students will have sharpened analytical skills, and will be more critical of data and statistical analyses. This is *not* a data/statistical methods course, but is rather an analysis course. The course requires only the tools learned in D&D. Topics in International Macroeconomics and Finance.

This course gives students a background to understand fundamental issues in international macroeconomics and finance. Key topics include international asset pricing, hedging exchange rate risk, the relation between interest rates and exchange rates, business cycle fluctuations in emerging markets as well as in developed countries, banking and currency crises. By the end of the course, students should be able to read and understand the discussions of these topics in a publication such as The Economist.

Each week we will have one lecture on fundamental concepts and one that applies these to recent events. Global Management Research. The course will review the results from a large management practices project involving Cambridge, Harvard, the London School of Economics, McKinsey & Company and Stanford.

McKinsey have developed a basic management practice evaluation tool - detailing about 20 key practices - which has been used to evaluate about 20,000 organizations in manufacturing, retail, healthcare and education across North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australasia. These data provide a global insight into the basic management practices around monitoring, targets and talent management that firms adopt around the world. We will examine the link between management and performance, and the reasons for differences in management across firms, industries and countries.

This will be supplemented with the results from more recent research with Accenture and the World Bank in India on change management interventions in a developing country context.n nThe course will focus on making students familiar with this research and in particular the scoring grid so that they can easily performance an initial overview of the management practices of any organization. For example, this would be ideal for an initial evaluation of the management practices in a target company for private equity investment or a preliminary evaluation ('diagnostic'€) of a potential client by a consulting firm. Interested students can look at some of the academic, business and media focused output from the research on: including over dozens of articles in the New York Times, Economist, Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Newsweek, Washington Post and the Financial Times. Auctions, Bargaining, and Pricing.

This course covers mostly auction theory, bargaining theory and related parts of the literature on pricing. Key classic papers covered in the course are Myerson and Satterthwaite on dynamic bargaining, Myerson on optimal auctions, and Milgrom and Weber's classic work, the Coase Conjecture results. We also cover a few more recent developments related to these topics, including dynamic signaling and screening. In some years we also cover topics in matching theory. Econometric Methods I. This is the first course in the sequence in graduate econometrics. The course covers some of the probabilistic and statistical underpinnings of econometrics, and explores the large-sample properties of maximum likelihood estimators.

You are assumed to have introductory probability and statistics and matrix theory, and to have exposure to basic real analysis. Topics covered in the course include random variables, distribution functions, functions of random variables, expectations, conditional probabilities and Bayes' law, convergence and limit laws, hypothesis testing, confidence intervals, maximum likelihood estimation, and decision theory.

Econometric Methods II. This course presents a comprehensive treatment of econometric methods used in economics, finance, marketing, and other management disciplines. Among the topics covered are: the classical linear regression analysis, linear simultaneous equations systems and instrumental variables techniques, panel data models, generalized method of moments, selection models, and limited dependent variable models. This course uses Matlab or similar computational software, but previous experience with such software is not a prerequisite. This course assumes working knowledge of undergraduate econometrics, basic linear algebra, basic probability theory, and statistics that are covered in. Those who did not take or similar should see the instructor. Econometric Methods III.

This course completes the first-year sequence in econometrics. It develops nonparametric, semiparametric and nonlinear parametric models in detail, as well as optimization methods used to estimate nonlinear models. The instructor will discuss identification issues, the statistical properties of these estimators, and how they are used in practice. Depending on student and instructor interest, we will consider advanced topics and applications, including: simulation methods and Bayesian estimators.

This course covers various topics in macroeconomics and is designed to expose students to macroeconomic methods, classic papers in the field, and the latest research at the frontier. The current focus is on economic growth.

Using theoretical and empirical tools, we consider questions like: How do we understand long-run growth in per capita income? Why are some countries so much richer than others? Other topics include misallocation as a source of TFP differences, the direction of technical change, growth and the environment, the rise in health spending, patenting, and international trade.nnThis course satisfies the GSB PhD macro requirement. Advanced Macroeconomics II. Modern macroeconomics of aggregate fluctuations in advanced economies. Current research on sovereign debt, fiscal policy and financial flows, low growth and stagnation, low interest rates, financial crises, unemployment fluctuations, and other timely topics. The course will be organized around the detailed study of recent research papers.

Some lectures will be given by visiting macroeconomists. Students enrolled in take the class for 4 units.

Students develop a research proposal and present it to the instructors as the final exam. Prerequisite: Satisfaction of the economics department's core macro requirement or consent of the instructors.

Theory and Practice of Auction Market Design. This class will focus on several topics in auction market design and related areas. It is an advanced course, intended as a sequel to the more basic market/mechanism/auction design courses offered at the Economics department and the GSB.

Students are expected to be familiar with the material in those courses. We will briefly review some basics of auction theory, but the main goal of the class is to bring students closer to doing independent research and introduce them to recent contributions and currently active research areas. Specific topics may include: multi-item and combinatorial auctions; robust auction design; applied auction design with practical applications; Internet advertising; radio spectrum auctions; securities markets; commodities; complex procurements. Financial Economics II.

Course will cover research topics at the boundary between macroeconomics and finance. Topics will include the study of macroeconomic models with financial frictions, the term structure of interest rates, conventional and unconventional monetary policy, sovereign debt crises, search frictions and segmentation in housing markets, (over)leveraging by households, heterogeneous expectations, excess volatility, financial bubbles and crises. Student presentations and course paper requirement.

Designed for second year PhD students in economics or finance. Social Insurance and Urban Economics. The course covers various topics relating to social insurance. The first half of the course covers the rationale for government interventions into private insurance markets, adverse selection, social insurance design and the intersection between social insurance and intra-family insurance. The second half of the course covers local public policy through the lens of social insurance, and includes topics such as spatial equilibrium, placed-based policies and housing policy. Continuous-time Methods in Economics and Finance.

Continuous-time methods can, in many cases, lead to more powerful models to understand economic phenomena. The Black-Scholes option-pricing formula is significantly more tractable than discrete- time methods of option pricing based on binomial trees.

There is an established tradition in continuous-time asset pricing, and there is increasing use of these methods in other fields, such as game theory, contract theory, market microstructure and macroeconomics.nnThe goal of this class is to explore some of the old classic research as well as new economic models, and to discover areas of economics where continuous-time methods can help. The intention is to give graduate students a tool, which they can use to gain comparative advantage in their research, when they see appropriate.nnWith this goal in mind, 25% of the class will focus on mathematics, but with economically relevant examples to illustrate the mathematical results. Up to one half of the class will cover established models, and the rest will focus on new papers. If students have their own work that uses continuous time, we can take a look at that as well.nnCoursework will include biweekly problem sets and a take-home final exam.

There will also be room for short student presentations (related to homework assignments, economic papers, or definitions and results related to specific math concepts). Empirical Applications of Dynamic Oligopoly Models in I.O. This course will provide an overview of recent advances in, and applications of, dynamic oligopoly models in I.O.

We will start by introducing a simple framework for dynamic oligopoly in the context of a dynamic investment model. We will move on to other applications and extensions of the framework, including dynamic entry models and dynamic mergers, with a discussion of antitrust issues. We will cover an empirical model of dynamic network adoption and participation. We will learn alternative econometric approaches to the identification and estimation of dynamic oligopoly models, including a discussion of serially correlated unobserved shocks. Finally, we will discuss methods for computing counterfactuals and welfare, and then speculate about some unresolved issues and the potential for future work in this area. Topics in Continuous Time Dynamics.

This seminar-style course studies a selection of micro-economic models in dynamic settings, and explores the use of continuous-time methods to solve them. Topics to be covered include experimentation games, social learning, principal-agent problems, career concerns/market-agent models, security design and strategic trading. For every topic discussed, the class introduces gradually the set of relevant mathematical tools: dynamic programming and Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equations, Pontryagin's maximum principle, Euler-Lagrange equations, Brownian and Poisson processes, Bayesian inference and linear filtering, change of measure, martingale representation, Malliavin derivatives, stochastic maximum principle, expansions of filtrations. NThe course emphasizes high-level intuition rather than mathematical rigor. It is targeted at those who seek to become familiar with the literature on continuous-time dynamics and want to understand the functioning of these models, either by general interest or to apply these techniques.

Machine Learning and Causal Inference. This course will cover statistical methods based on the machine learning literature that can be used for causal inference. In economics and the social sciences more broadly, empirical analyses typically estimate the effects of counterfactual policies, such as the effect of implementing a government policy, changing a price, showing advertisements, or introducing new products.

Recent advances in supervised and unsupervised machine learning provide systematic approaches to model selection and prediction, methods that are particularly well suited to datasets with many observations and/or many covariates. This course will review when and how machine learning methods can be used for causal inference, and it will also review recent modifications and extensions to standard methods to adapt them to causal inference and provide statistical theory for hypothesis testing. Applications to the evaluation of large-scale experiments, including online A/B tests and experiments on networks, will receive special attention. We will also consider topic modeling, Bayesian methods, and a brief overview of textual analysis. Quantitative Methods for Empirical Research.

This is an advanced course on quantitative methods for empirical research. Students are expected to have taken a course in linear models before. In this course I will discuss modern econometric methods for nonlinear models, including maximum likelihood and generalized method of moments. The emphasis will be on how these methods are used in sophisticated empirical work in social sciences. Special topics include discrete choice models and methods for estimating treatment effects. Personnel Economics.

This seminar will examine applications of labor economics to business issues and firms' practices. Material will include both theoretical and empirical work, and the syllabus will range from classics in Personnel Economics to current (unpublished) research. Some of the topics to be covered include, but are not limited to, compensation practices, assignment of decision rights, organizational structure, attracting, retaining, and displacing employees, and workplace practices (such as team-based organization, profit sharing, etc.). Undergraduate Finance Research and Discussion Seminar.

This seminar is designed to provide some experience with research methods and topics in finance, and to assist undergraduates with career interests in financial research, whether academic or not, with preparation for those careers. The seminar meetings are weekly and discussion based, covering a range of issues and methods in financial economics. Students are expected to prepare a 30-minute research presentation once during the quarter. This course covers the foundations of finance with an emphasis on applications that are vital for corporate managers. We will discuss many of the major financial decisions made by corporate managers, both within the firm and in their interactions with investors.

Essential in most of these decisions is the process of valuation, which will be an important emphasis of the course. Topics include criteria for making investment decisions, valuation of financial assets and liabilities, relationships between risk and return, capital structure choice, payout policy, the use and valuation of derivative securities, and risk management.

This course is targeted to those students who are new to finance and for those with little quantitative background. Finance I - Accelerated. This course covers the foundations of finance with an emphasis on applications that are vital for corporate managers. We will discuss many of the major financial decisions made by corporate managers, both within the firm and in their interactions with investors. Essential in most of these decisions is the process of valuation, which will be an important emphasis of the course. Topics include criteria for making investment decisions, valuation of financial assets and liabilities, relationships between risk and return, capital structure choice, the use and valuation of derivative securities (e.g., options and convertible securities), and risk management.nnNo previous background in finance is required or expected, but in comparison with, less time will be spent in class on the steps involved in solving basic problems.

Therefore, students choosing this course should be relatively comfortable with basic mathematical operations (e.g., expressions involving multiplication of multiple terms, summation of multiple terms, etc.), though familiarity with the underlying finance concepts is not expected. A good diagnostic is to skim Section 4.2 'Rules for Time Travel' (pp. 98-104) in the course textbook, Corporate Finance by Berk and DeMarzo. If you are comfortable with the level of basic mathematics involved (even if the concepts are new), 204 is a good choice.

If not, you should consider. Accelerated Managerial Finance. This course covers the foundations of finance with an emphasis on applications that are vital for corporate managers. We will discuss many of the major financial decisions made by corporate managers, both within the firm and in their interactions with investors. Essential in most of these decisions is the process of valuation, which will be an important emphasis of the course.

Topics include criteria for making investment decisions, valuation of financial assets and liabilities, relationships between risk and return, capital structure choice, payout policy, the use and valuation of derivative securities, and risk management. This course is targeted to those students who are new to finance and for those with little quantitative background.nnnNo previous background in finance is required or expected for this course. Content will be comparable to F201, but the majority of course lecture material will be delivered online, with in-class sessions devoted to applications of key concepts. This 'flipped classroom' version of the course is intended for self-motivated students with an interest in applications. Prerequisite material for the course will be posted online in the fall.

Same as: Lab-based Pilot. Corporations, Finance, and Governance in the Global Economy. As entrepreneurs, global leaders, and change agents tasked with developing transformative solutions of tomorrow, you will need certain skills and tools to interact with and navigate the complex and ever-changing financial landscape.

This course focuses on the development of these skills and tools through the analysis of concise real-world financial situations around the globe. Topics include valuation of cash flows and control; the capital structure, payout policy and governance of both mature and entrepreneurial firms; restructuring and managing financial distress; the use of public markets to obtain liquidity and multiple share classes to retain control; financing and governance in venture capital and private equity; the rise of activism; and social responsibility and debates about the objectives of the firms of the present and future. This course is taught jointly by Professors Rauh and Seru. Corporate Finance: Applications, Techniques, and Models. This course will develop and apply the basic tools and models of corporate finance to real-world corporate decisions. This course is designed to be the second course in the standard finance sequence; that is, it is designed to be the natural follow-up to the Winter Managerial Finance course.

This course will develop and extend standard tools and techniques of financial analysis, valuation, and model-building, and apply these methods to a wide range of cases. Case topics will include mergers and acquisitions, private equity, corporate governance, capital structure, agency conflicts, and corporate restructuring. For all of these applications, this course will emphasize the central importance of financial analysis, valuation, and modeling to guiding optimal decision making. Accelerated Corporate Finance: Applications, Techniques, and Models. This course will develop and apply the basic tools and models of corporate finance to real-world corporate decisions.

This course is designed to be the second course in the standard finance sequence; that is, it is designed to be the natural follow-up to the Winter Managerial Finance course. This course will develop and extend standard tools and techniques of financial analysis, valuation, and model-building, and apply these methods to a wide range of cases. Case topics will include mergers and acquisitions, private equity, corporate governance, capital structure, agency conflicts, and corporate restructuring. For all of these applications, this course will emphasize the central importance of financial analysis, valuation, and modeling to guiding optimal decision making.

MSx: Finance. This course covers the foundations of corporate finance including the management of capital structure, financial forecasting, dividend policy, financial distress, cost of capital and capital budgeting.

It discusses the major financial decisions made by corporate managers and the impact of those decisions on investors and the value of the firm. Topics include criteria for understanding the valuation of financial assets and liabilities, relationships between risk and return, market efficiency, and the role of derivative securities, including options. The course also provides coverage of the role of financial markets in the operations of the firm. Capital Markets and Institutional Investing. This course teaches recent advances in asset allocation and management. We focus on the practical implementation of asset allocation and management tools in allocating assets, selecting asset managers and managing risk. Students apply these tools to real-time data in the computer lab.

Topics covered include Asset Allocation; Delegated Asset Management and Manager Selection applied to Mutual Funds, Hedge Funds and Private Equity Funds; Multi-factor models and Factor Investing. The class will be co-taught by Kevin Mak, the director of the Real-Time Investment and Analysis Lab at Stanford. Robert Wallace, the CEO of Stanford Management Company, will guest-lecture. Finance - Advanced. This advanced applications course brings recent advances in finance to bear on real-world challenges in investment management and corporate finance.

The goal of this course is to develop a deeper understanding of how capital markets actually work, drawing on recent advances in modern finance. We discuss the implications for financial decision making by managers and investors. The course is intended for MBA1 students who are familiar with the foundations of finance, including discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis, internal rate of return (IRR) calculations, mean-variance analysis and the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). Examples of broad topics covered in the class include corporate capital structure decisions, challenges in portfolio management, performance analysis of mutual funds, hedge funds and private equity, IPOs, hedging of currency and interest rate risk, etc. To be eligible, students must have passed the placement exam in Week Zero, must have solid quantitative skills and have a willingness to analyze data.

Innovating for Financial Inclusion. This is a new MBA elective exploring innovative ways start-ups are altering household participation in financial services, by overcoming financial frictions and/or changing behaviors. 'Inclusion'€ will be viewed broadly to encompass individuals/households from all socioeconomic classes in all aspects of their financial lives. The focus will be predominantly on start-ups that are disrupting financial services within the US legal and regulatory environment, though we will frequently draw upon lessons learned from welfare-enhancing innovations in the international FinTech sphere.

Private Equity Investing Seminar. This PE Investing seminar launched in 1993 focuses on private equity investing, including investments with control, buyouts, and minority investments at various stages in a company's life.

Private equity investing activity has grown significantly over the past 2 decades. This seminar explores selected topics in private equity investing for those MBA students who take the co-requisite course.01, Investment Management and Entrepreneurial Finance. Private equity includes both established and early stage companies. The course extends and deepens the entrepreneurial finance area for those with an interest in private equity, venture capital and principal investing, taking a global view.

Utilization will be made of original case studies and lecture-discussions, building on the framework of. The Seminar meets with many outstanding investors.

All those registered in F321.01 will also be registered in F319. See yellow Term Sheet put in MBA Boxes in late April. Note: All those registered in F321.02 will also be registered in F329. Debt Markets. This course is intended for those who plan careers that may involve debt financing for their businesses or other investments, or involve trading or investing in debt instruments and their derivatives, including money-market instruments including central bank deposits, government bonds, repurchase agreements, interest-rate swaps, mortgage-backed securities (MBS), corporate bonds, structured credit products, and credit derivatives.

We will emphasize institutional features of the markets, including trading, pricing, and hedging. There is a special focus on distressed debt. Most lectures will start with a cold-called student presentation of an un-graded short homework calculation. There will also be a series of graded homework, a take-home mid-term, and about six graded 'pop quizzes' of 10 minutes or less.

Investment Management and Entrepreneurial Finance. Our focus is fundamental value investing. Equity investment in companies, common stocks, early/growth stage ventures and private equity, deals, partnerships, hedge funds, or other entrepreneurial opportunities will be immediately or eventually important for most MBAs--either on the investing side or on the fund-raising financing side. This investment course discusses many practical and conceptual factors influencing the analysis and value of companies and deals, including publicly listed and private equity investments, and on success of investment approaches. The focus of this course is on quoted and private equity investments and on entrepreneurial finance. The format of the class is primarily case discussions and lecture discussions led by the professor and investors/principals who were involved in the case.

This course enables MBA students to learn a broad investing skill-set and to study outstanding investors. See yellow Term Sheet put in MBA Boxes in late April. Financial Intermediaries and Capital Markets. This course focuses on financial markets, institutions, and instruments. We consider when and how firms raise capital through the life cycle, beginning with the capital-raising decisions and transactions for young firms and then discussing the decisions facing older, listed firms. We concentrate mainly on the firm's perspective while also considering the perspective of financial intermediaries. Issues to be considered in this course include the role of financial intermediaries like banks, the decision to go public, the pricing and role of investment banks in IPOs, bank debt, project finance, public debt, private placements, securitizations, convertibles, and markets for junk bonds.

Practical Corporate Finance. The focus of this course is to apply the fundamental ideas of corporate finance to real-world problems. This course is a follow-up to the Fall course in Managerial Finance in which the basics of finance and valuation were covered.

We will explore both how to make the acquired knowledge practical as well as to deepen our understanding of the core principles of finance.nnnDuring the course we will analyze cases covering a wide range of topics such as capital structure, private equity and venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, hostile takeovers and leveraged buyouts, as well as bankruptcy and financial distress. These cases provide an opportunity to bridge the gap between theory and real-life situations. Students are expected to develop their own spreadsheets and provide recommendations based on their analysis of the case material. NnnThis course was formerly known as FINANCE 224. An accelerated version of this course is offered as.

Derivative Securities. This course is an introduction to options, futures and other derivative securities. The goal is to learn a core set of principles that underlie the pricing and use of derivatives. In particular, we will cover the valuation and use, both for risk management and for speculation, of forwards, futures, swaps, and options; the Black-Scholes option-pricing formula; delta-hedging; credit derivatives; financial risk management; and the role of derivatives in the recent financial crisis. Financial Markets. The aim of this course is to develop a thorough understanding of financial markets. We explore how investors make decisions about risk and return, how financial markets price risky assets in equilibrium, and how financial markets can sometimes malfunction.

The course puts particular emphasis on the role of real-world imperfections that are absent from the standard textbook view of financial markets. For example, we explore the role of illiquidity: Why are there liquid markets for some types of assets but not for others? Why does liquidity often disappear in times of market turmoil? We will also study recent insights from behavioral finance about investor psychology and market inefficiencies. Moreover, we will look at financial innovations such as credit-default swaps, securitization, and hedge funds that play important roles in financial markets these days. We use cases to develop these topics in the context of practical decision-problems in the areas of asset allocation, risk management, and financing.

Investment Seminar. F329 - Investment Seminar: 'Global Principal Investing/Hedge Funds' is a seminar focused on selected topics in masterful investing in publicly traded with some private equity capital investments, with emphasis on the principal's point of view. We study hedge funds and mutual funds and meet with outstanding investors. The scope and context is global including emerging markets. The Seminar is taught by a founding director of one of the largest international investment funds. See yellow Term Sheet put in MBA Boxes in late April. All those registered in F321.02 will also be registered in F329.

NnNote: All those registered in F321.01 will also be registered in F319. Practical Corporate Finance. (Note: this course was formerly known as FIN 230) The main aim of this course is to enable students to apply the fundamental ideas of finance to problems in the area of corporate finance with all the complexities the real world entails. The course is a follow-up to the Fall Managerial Finance course where students learnt basics of valuation tecyhniques and various finance applications.

We will explore both how to make all this knowledge practical as well as how to deepen our knowledge of fundamental finance ideas. NnnThe main focus of this course is on the corporate financial manager and how he/she reaches decisions as to investments, dividends and financing of all sorts. Topics include leveraged buyouts, hostile takeovers, private equity financing and venture capital, financial distress and bankruptcy, mergers and acquisitions, managing working capital. The cases will be used to motivate our discussion of how to bridge the gap between rigorous finance theory and its application to practical problems in corporate finance.nnnThe course is case-based and more advanced than.

'Advanced' means that we will discuss a lot of subtle qualitative issues as well as explore deeper fundamental applications of core finance ideas. The course is intensive and will require students to prepare carefully all cases, read and understand a lot of materials, and actively participate in the class discussion. The main teaching method is cold calling. Same as: Accelerated. Finance and Society. This interdisciplinary course explores how market and non-market forces shape the financial system and, through this system, affect the broad economy and society. You will gain an in-depth understanding of the interactions between individuals, corporations in the financial and non-financial sector, and governments around the globe, in an environment that is rife with conflicts of interests and differences in information and control.

Topics include the structure and role of various financial institutions and the financial system, housing, credit and securities markets, central banks, regulation, global cooperation and competition, governance and accountability, and the role of the media. Corporate Valuation, Governance and Behavior. This course will develop a detailed knowledge of corporate valuation techniques, together with an understanding of the role such valuations play in a wide range of corporate financing decisions. First, the course will carefully consider different valuation techniques, the assumptions that underlie each of these methods, how they are applied in practice, how they are related to one another, and how to decide which method of valuation is appropriate for a given application. After developing these tools, they will then be applied to a wide range of corporate finance settings.

Among the applications to be considered are mergers and acquisitions, international valuation, corporate governance, financial distress, agency conflicts, asymmetric information, and overvaluation. For all of these applications, this course will emphasize the central importance of valuation to understanding observed phenomena and to guiding optimal decision making, as well as the unique challenges to valuation posed by the particular application. The Finance of Retirement and Pensions. The financial economics of how retirement is financed, particularly in the US. Topics: basic finance concepts necessary for understanding individual retirement savings. Properties of financial instruments such as bonds and stocks. Optimization of individual retirement account or 401(k) portfolios.

Defined benefit pensions. Measuring defined benefit pension liabilities. Impact of defined benefit pension liabilities on corporate, state, and local budgeting. The economics of national retirement policy including Social Security and government treatment of private retirement savings. Modeling for Investment Management.

This course will combine practical and up-to-date investment theory with modeling applications. Understanding beautiful theory, without the ability to apply it, is essentially useless. Conversely, creating state-of-the-art spreadsheets that apply incorrect theory is a waste of time. Here, we try to explicitly combine theory and application.

The course will be divided into 6 modules, or topics. The first day of each module will be a lecture on an investment topic.

Also provided is a team modeling project on the topic. The second day of each module will be a lab. The lab day will begin with modeling concepts (tips) designed to help you use Excel to implement the module's investment topic. After the tips are provided, the remainder of the lab day is devoted to teams working on their modeling project and allowing for Q&A. On the third day of each module will be presentations and wrap-up.

Institutional Money Management. The object of this course is to study the money management industry from the perspective of the user --- an investor who wants to invest money. This course will study the main components of the money management industry: mutual funds, hedge funds, private equity funds and venture capital funds. It will also examine important users of the industry such as non profits, endowments and defined benefit pension funds.

The emphasis of the course will not be on how fund managers make money, but rather on how the industry is organized, how managerial skill is assessed, how compensation is determined, and how economic rents are divided between managers and investors. The course will explore how competitive market forces interact with managerial skill and other market frictions to give rise to the observed organization of the industry. Money and Banking. This course is designed to help students understand the connections between money (the Federal Reserve), financial markets, and the macroeconomy. How are interest rates determined, and how does the Federal Reserve conduct monetary policy? What economic factors drive the yield curves in different bond markets?

We will pay particular attention to the banking system, with an eye toward understanding the function and importance of banks. Topics will include the role of the Federal Reserve as a lender of last resort during the recent, and prior, financial crises, unconventional monetary policy tools such as quantitative easing and forward guidance. We discuss the role of the government in regulating the financial sector, paying particular attention to capital requirements for banks. We will often begin class with a discussion of current macro-financial market events in the context of our course coverage. The course is appropriate for anyone trying to gain a macroeconomic perspective on capital markets, from investors to bankers, or those simply interested in the linkages between interest rates, banks and the economy. Given the topics we cover, the course will also be interesting to those who want a better understanding of the 2007-2009 financial crisis and the ongoing Federal Reserve experiment in unconventional monetary policy. Corporate Financial Modeling.

This course will expose students to the fundamentals, best practices, and advanced techniques of corporate financial modeling. We begin with basic operating and integrated financial statement models, and ultimately develop financial models to analyze major corporate transactions, including venture capital funding, mergers and acquisitions, and leverage buyouts. We will integrate theories presented throughout the MBA core, particularly those from accounting and finance, and take a hands-on approach to understand how the theory is implemented in practice.nnThe focus of the course will be on developing critical financial modeling skills, understanding best practices, and recognizing common pitfalls.

Students will work on a series of cases and build models that can be used for earnings and pro-forma financial statement forecasts, valuation, the assessment of financing needs, merger analysis, and LBO evaluation.nnStudents will also gain experience presenting financial models and critically assessing them. By the conclusion of the course, students will develop the skills to construct complex financial models and the logical frameworks to utilize them for various organizational applications. Behavioral Finance. This course provides an introduction to behavioral finance, a discipline which integrates insights from psychology into the study of financial decisions and markets.

There will be a focus on understanding the psychological underpinnings of financial decision-making as well as the institutional frictions that may allow these psychological mechanisms to influence economic outcomes. Applications include the pricing of assets relative to fundamental value, trading strategies, managerial behavior, and household savings and investment decisions. Conceptual issues will be emphasized through a mix of case discussions and lectures, and quantitative exercises will serve to develop analytical tools for making financial choices. Financial Trading Strategies. The purpose of this course is to familiarize students with the different types of trading strategies employed by various money management institutions. These financial trading strategies are used to manage the risk and return profiles of specific portfolios.

Throughout the sessions, students will be challenged to understand and explore the application and implementation of these different strategies. Trading simulations employed on the Rotman Interactive Trader and Rotman Portfolio Manager (using real market data and computer generated data) will be used extensively in this course as a way to learn and test different strategies.

All classes will be held in the new Real-time Analytics and Investment Lab (RAIL), located on the third floor of the Bass Building (B312). Students are expected to attend all sessions. Grades are based on in-class simulation results, class participation, and two written assignments. Entrepreneurial Finance.

This is a course about the financial decision-making process largely from the point of view of the CEO of an entrepreneurial venture, ranging from very early to very late stages. The course takes a two-pronged approach: First, we develop tools and concepts of corporate finance related to modeling, valuation, control, and investment decisions within an entrepreneurial context. Second, we use cases with firms at different stages of their life cycles from initial angel or venture capital investments through exit decisions, in order to see the issues that arise when these principles are applied in practice. In some cases we show the viewpoint of the entrepreneur and in others the perspective of the investor. After all, as an entrepreneur, one cannot negotiate effectively without understanding an investor's motivations.

Conversely, an investor cannot evaluate a potential investment opportunity without appreciating the entrepreneur's perspective and incentives. Finally, we explore new developments in entrepreneurial finance such as crowdfunding and early liquidity provisions.

China's Financial System. This course is a survey of China's financial system, including its banking industry, monetary policy structure, and financial markets (bonds, derivatives, equities, foreign exchange, alternative asset management, and related markets). The goal is an integrated view of how capital, risk, and liquidity are intermediated within China and cross-border. Current trends (including liberalization of markets) will be emphasized. Coverage will be through lectures, reading of both primary source documents and secondary (journalistic and analyst) commentary, as well as a range of subject-matter-expert speakers.

Using our special High Immersion Classrooms at Stanford and at the Stanford Center at PKU, this course meets jointly with a parallel course offered at Beijing University. Students will participate actively in class discussion, make a 5-minute topical presentation, and submit a short (10-page) paper. Private Equity in Frontier Markets: Creating a New Investible Asset Class.

In 2001, Jim O'Neil of Goldman Sachs wrote a research note which underscored the importance of so-called Emerging Markets to a well-balanced investment portfolio. Still today, most investors have little or no investment exposure beyond North America, Europe, Japan and more recently India, China and Brazil. All of this is just beginning to change. The not yet fully formed investment category called frontier market private equity is emerging and within the next decade is likely to be an asset class of its own. Private equity investments are being made in southeast Asia, in MENA(Middle East/ North Africa), in sub-Saharan countries beyond South Africa and in Latin America. Even fund of funds are appearing across these markets. At the same time, investors face a world of diminished returns expectations in developed economies just as aging demographics and the need for continued growth, innovation and infrastructure renewal places increasing demands for payout.

Suffice it to say, investors will be looking beyond traditional asset classes and geographies for sources of return. This new course is designed to expose you to the still emerging, not yet fully formed world of frontier market private equity. To set the context we will start by reviewing the fundamentals of economic growth and development globally. In addition we will discuss the fundamental concepts involved in constructing and evaluating the performance of a large scale investment portfolio. We will then review cases on the elements of the private equity cycle/process and specifically address the special demands of frontier markets in general.

We will also focus on issues that are specific to various markets (e.g. Nigeria, Vietnam, etc.).

Students taking the course will be given the opportunity to make important contributions to the knowledge base of this still very young field by working in small teams to research topics of personal and general interest, the results of which will be reported to the rest of the class. This course will not be offered next academic year, 2017-2018. Angel and Venture Capital Financing for Entrepreneurs and Investors. This course covers all the stages of funding for early stage high-growth companies, from seed funding to venture capital rounds to a successful exit. We will concentrate on how entrepreneurs and investors make and should make important decisions. Examples of issues that we will cover are: How can entrepreneurs raise funding successfully? What are typical mistakes entrepreneurs make in raising capital and negotiating with investors?

How to choose your investor? How to pitch to an investor? How do angels and VCs generate and process their deal flow and select companies? How are VCs involved in business decisions such as recruiting talent and replacing CEOs? What are the important provisions of financial contracts between VCs and founders? How to value early-stage companies?

The course is very applied and mostly case-based. We will discuss a lot of nitty-gritty details that is a must for founders and investors. Case protagonists, founders, angels, and VCs will be among guest speakers. No prior knowledge of the VC industry is needed. The Political Economy of Banking Regulation in US and Europe. The 2007-09 financial crisis exposed the extreme fragility of the financial system and the harm financial crises can cause.

Have regulatory reforms in the US and Europe been effective and, if not, how and why? Does it matter if some institutions are 'too big to fail,' and, if so, how and why?

This course will discuss the economic and political forces that are shaping the financial system in US and Europe and evaluate recent and current events that will have important implications for the economy for many years. We will see how politics trumps economics in Washington, London and Brussels in different but broadly predictable ways.

Private Wealth Management and Personal Investing. The Private Wealth Management and Personal Investing course will address issues that relate to the management of personal assets as opposed to institutional investing.

It will cover the origins and growth of private wealth management as an industry, investment planning, risk management, inter-generational transfers of wealth, philanthropy and tax planning. Special emphasis is on issues surrounding the selection of a wealth manager, how managers may be evaluated, including potential conflicts of interest, and performance measurement.

Classes will focus on case studies and various readings. Two instructors will lead the class, one from the GSB and one from the private wealth management industry. Most classes will be augmented by visits from professionals in the wealth management and private banking business. Active class participation and a group project are required.