Week 1 January 19 Financial Assets: valuation and risk (Professor Merva)
Researching economics and
finance: summarizing information for policy and decision-makers: Information resources
and writing: the White Paper and the Position Paper. Library Information Session.
Begin Assignment 1: Prepare an equity research report and presentation for one selected
stock. Guidelines on the Frohring
Library website: http://johncabot.libguides.com/EC480/equity-research-report
Report and
presentation due Week 3. The
presentation should last 20 minutes.
Begin Assignment 2 White Paper: You have been asked by your employer, a
pension fund, to provide a review of a specific country’s sovereign debt. You must provide a
4 to 5-page White Paper for your client and give a 20-minute summary report
with 3 to 10 power point slides maximum.
Presentations in Week 4;
final paper due at the beginning of class Week 5.
See the guidelines on the Frohring
Library website for White Papers: http://johncabot.libguides.com/EC480/white-papers
Background Readings to prepare for Week 2:
The Economics and Law of Sovereign Debt and Default Author(s) Ugo Panizza,
Federico Sturzenegger and
Jeromin Zettelmeyer, Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. 47, No. 3 (Sep.,
2009), pp. 651-698,
To Judge Leviathan: Sovereign Credit
Ratings, National Law, and the World Economy Author(s): Christopher M. Bruner
and Rawi Abdelal, Journal of Public Policy, Vol. 25, No. 2 (May - Aug., 2005),
pp. 191-217.
The European Sovereign Debt Crisis
Author: Philip R. Lane, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 26, No. 3
(Summer 2012), pp. 49-67.
Toward A Bottom-Up Approach to Assessing Sovereign
Default Risk: An Update
Edward I. Altman, New York University Stern
School of Business, Herbert Rijken, Vrije University
Investment valuation: tools and
techniques for determining the value of any asset / Aswath Damodaran. by
Damodaran, Aswath. John Wiley, c2002.
Aswath Damodaran, Professor of Finance
at the Stern School of Business at New York University: Spreadsheet Programs: http://people.stern.nyu.edu/adamodar/
Week 2 January 26 (Professor Merva)
In class discussion on sovereign bonds based on assigned discussion questions.
Students present their valuation models for discussion and review in preparation for their Equity Research Report
Week 3 February 2 (Professor Merva)
Assignment 1 Equity Research Reports due at the beginning of class.
Presentation of Equity Research Reports
Lecture on CFA Code of Ethics and
Professional Conduct
Week 4 February 9 (Professor Merva)
Assignment 2: Student Presentations on Sovereign Debt
In class test on the CFA Code of
Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct.
Week 5 February 16 (Professor
Ruscitti)
Assignment 2 White Papers on Sovereign Debt due at
the beginning of class. Please hand in
to Professor Ruscitti.
Microeconomics:
Private information, adverse selection and market failure (based on Akerlof`s
paper). George A.
Akerlof, “The market for “lemons”: quality uncertainty and the market
mechanism”, The Quarterly Journal of
Economics 84, 488-500, 1970.
Week 6
February 23 (Professor Ruscitti)
Continue: Microeconomics:
Private information, adverse selection and market failure (based on Akerlof`s
paper). George A.
Akerlof, “The market for “lemons”: quality uncertainty and the market
mechanism”, The Quarterly Journal of
Economics 84, 488-500, 1970
Week 7 March 1 (Professor
Ruscitti)
Microeconomics:
education and labor market signaling:
M. Spence, “Job Market Signaling”, The Quarterly Journal of Economics 87,
355-374, 1973.
Week
8 March 8 (Professor Ruscitti)
Imperfect information and credit rationing
(based on Stiglitz, and
A. Weiss` paper). J. E. Stiglitz, and A. Weiss,
“Credit rationing in markets with imperfect information”, The American Economic Review 71, 393-410, 1981.
Week 9 March 15 (Professor Merva)
Information Cascades
Classroom Games: Information Cascades by Lisa Anderson and Charles Holt, The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 10, No. 4 (Autumn, 1996) http://www.jstor.org/stable/2138561
Learning from the Behavior of Others: Conformity, Fads, and Informational Cascades by Sushil Bikhchandani and David Hirshleifer, The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 12, No. 3 (Summer, 1998) http://www.jstore.org/stable/2647037
Week 10: March 22 (Professor Merva)
Seminar Discussion on a current topic. TBD.
Spring Break
Week 11 April 5 (Professor Ruscitti)
Continue: Imperfect information and credit rationing (based on Stiglitz,
and A. Weiss` paper). J. E. Stiglitz, and A. Weiss, “Credit rationing in
markets with imperfect information”, The American Economic Review 71, 393-410,
1981.
Week 12 April 12
(Professor Merva)
Seminar Discussion on Macroeconomics of Unbalanced Growth: The Anatomy of Urban Crisis Author(s): William J. Baumol Source: The American Economic Review, Vol. 57, No. 3 (Jun., 1967), pp. 415-426 Published by: American Economic Association – students should read the article in advance and be prepared to respond and contribute to discussion questions.
Week 13 April 19 (Professor Merva)
Seminar Discussion TBD
Week 14
April 26 (Professors Ruscitti and Merva)
Microeconomic Research Papers due at
the beginning of class.
Final Presentations of microeconomics research
paper
Week 15 Scheduled Final Exam meeting (Professor Ruscitti and Merva)
Final
presentations of microeconomics research paper