Prof Christopher Polk OLD 4.23

Prof Richard Payne

This course is available on the MPA in European Public and Economic Policy, MPA in International Development, MPA in Public Policy and Management, MPA in Public and Economic Policy, MPA in Public and Social Policy, MSc in Applicable Mathematics, MSc in Financial Mathematics, MSc in Regulation and MSc in Regulation (Research). This course is not available as an outside option.

Elementary economics and quantitative methods.

This course examines the theory of financial decision-making by firms and examines the behaviour of the capital markets in which these decisions are taken. The topics covered are the theory of capital budgeting under certainty in perfect and imperfect capital markets, portfolio theory, equity and bond markets, the capital asset pricing model, efficient markets, sources of funds, basic theory of capital structure and the cost of capital, company dividend decisions and financial markets and institutions.

20 hours of lectures and 20 hours of seminars in the MT. 20 hours of lectures and 20 hours of seminars in the LT. 2 hours of lectures and 6 hours of seminars in the ST.

Students are expected to produce written work for classes and to make positive contributions to class discussion.

Detailed course programmes and reading lists are distributed at the start of the course. Illustrative texts include: Grinblatt & Titman, Financial Markets and Corporate Strategy (Irwin, McGraw-Hill); Brealey & Myers, Principles of Corporate Finance (McGraw-Hill).

Exam (100%, duration: 3 hours) in the main exam period.