Dr E Bertero, OLD M2.12

This course is available to students on the MSc Accounting and Finance, MSc Management and Regulation of Risk, MSc Finance (Full-time), MSc Finance and Private Equity, MSc Finance and Economics and MSc Financial Mathematics.

Other interested graduate students may also be admitted provided they obtain permission from the course leader. Permission can be requested by emailing the course leader relevant information on previous studies in finance and economics and the motivation for wanting to take the course.

This course examines key issues in international finance, focusing on recent developments and incorporating theoretical, empirical, policy and institutional dimensions.

The course uses exchange rates as a unifying theme and considers them from four perspectives: theory, policy, global risk and international investors. The course examines models of exchange rate determination and related empirical evidence. It analyses the choice and coordination of exchange rate regimes, including the European Monetary Union. It examines exchange rates as one of the sources of global financial instability. It considers the risk exposure for investors arising from exchange rate volatility and its hedging with currency instruments. The course also explores the links, in each area, to current developments such as the internationalisation of the Chinese Renminbi, the EMU sovereign debt crisis, the recent financial crisis and global imbalances, forex carry trades and the high volatility of short term exchange rates.

20 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the LT.

Students are required to undertake a group research project on a given topic concerning financial crises.

A selection of journal articles; background reading from a textbook such as Keith Pilbeam International Finance (Palgrave, 2006, 3rd edition)

A two-hour written examination in the ST (100%).