Future students

An introduction to the principles of finance and their application to issues facing businesses and individual investors. Extensive use will be made of spreadsheets.

An introduction to the fundamental concepts in corporate finance. Topics include the net present value method, alternative investment rules, capital budgeting, and the theories of capital structure.

An introduction to the institutions, markets and instruments of the financial system, as well as the theory and practice of asset valuation and portfolio selection.

This course applies finance theories to problems involving corporate and personal financial decision making, and the principles of valuation to common situations. Extensive use will be made of spreadsheets.

An introduction to the fundamental concepts in corporate finance for accounting and business. Topics include net present value, alternative investment rules, capital budgeting, capital structure and long-term financing.

Significant aspects of financial decision making by firms, including capital structure, capital budgeting, and dividend decisions. The primary focus will be upon normative theory, ie. decisions that maximise the market value of the firm.

This course examines exchange rate behaviour and the implications for corporate financial management. Topics include modelling exchange rate behaviour; foreign exchange risk management, with applications to international debt raising, financial manag...

This course covers options, forward contracts, futures contracts, and other common derivative contracts. Topics include how these contracts work, how they are used, and how they are priced.

This course develops tools for analysing financial time series and estimating and testing simple financial models, including: the capital asset pricing model (CAPM), autoregressive moving average (ARMA) models, and generalised autoregressive conditio...

This course examines the problem of portfolio management confronted by individuals and pension plans. Topics covered include preferences for risk, valuation of stocks, portfolio allocation, and an introduction to derivative pricing. The course aims t...

This course bridges the gap between undergraduate and honours-level study in economics and finance. It reinforces and extends the theoretical basis of decision making as it applies to asset pricing and corporate finance. It is intended for students w...

Selected topics in risk management, banking and insurance; the use of financial and insurance markets to transfer and share risk; financial risk management case studies; regulation of finance, banking and insurance markets; recent developments in fin...

This course begins by introducing the fundamental concept of a bank and its key functions. Subsequently, it delves into the management of risks such as bank run risk, liquidity risk, and systemic risk. Finally, the course examines the evolved bank re...

Financial tools needed to start, build and exit a new venture. How and where to obtain financing to launch and develop a new business. Valuation and security design used by venture capitalists.

The traditional framework for thinking about financial markets assumes that all market participants are fully rational. However, a recently emerging paradigm, behavioural finance, argues that many financial phenomena are the result of less than fully...

The financial system plays a key role in the economy, facilitating the intermediation of savings and investment, transactions and risk management. The course gives an understanding of the New Zealand financial system, its functions, structure, curren...

The traditional framework for thinking about financial markets assumes that all market participants are fully rational. However, a recently emerging paradigm, behavioural finance, argues that many financial phenomena are the result of less than fully...

The financial system plays a key role in the New Zealand economy, facilitating the intermediation of savings and investment, transactions and risk management. The course aims to give an understanding of the New Zealand financial system, its functions...

Financial tools needed to start, build and exit a new venture. How and where to obtain financing to launch and develop a new business. Valuation and security design used by venture capitalists.

An intensive examination of modern research in asset pricing, focusing on the role of intertemporal risks, asymmetric information and liquidity. Topics include consumption-based asset pricing models; the theory, estimation and evaluation of factor pr...

An intensive examination of modern research in corporate finance based on information asymmetries. Topics include agency costs, financial contracting, security issuing, security design, liquidity, and corporate governance.

An intensive examination of the pricing of options and option-like assets and their use in hedging financial risk. Topics include stochastic calculus, risk-neutral valuation, finite difference methods, Monte Carlo simulation, and fixed income derivat...

This course provides a rigorous examination of modern research in long-run asset allocation, focusing on the prescriptive role of theory in aiding investment decisions and the explanatory role of theory in resolving or highlighting empirical anomalie...

An intensive development of the real options approach to business decision-making in general and capital budgeting in particular. Topics include the valuation of risky cash flows, dynamic programming, timing options, compound options, learning option...

This course discusses current research questions in the analysis of fixed income securities. Topics include the term structure of interest rates, market efficiency, interest rate models, liquidity, credit risk models and investment behaviour.

An intensive examination of modern research in corporate governance based on information asymmetries. Topics include the separation of ownership and control, delegated monitoring, executive compensation and the market for corporate control.

An intensive examination of volatility modelling. Topics include simulation and data analysis techniques; continuous-time stock price models; conditional and stochastic volatility modelling; and modelling heavy tails and regimes. Programming skills w...

Intensive examination of selected applications and extensions of the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). Topics include valuation under differential personal taxation; beta estimation; market risk premium estimation.

Selected topics in financial risk management and insurance, from traditional approaches to risk management to recent broader interpretations. Topics include the global financial crisis; credit derivative securities; insurance markets, reinsurance and...

This course examines the psychological factors that shape financial decision-making. Students analyse cognitive biases, heuristics, and their impact on investment choices, market anomalies, and asset pricing within the framework of behavourial financ...

An in-depth review of the financing of early stage companies from the vantage point of both the entrepreneur and the financier (e.g. venture capitalist or angel investor). Operational financial management including pro-forma financial statements, cas...

Develop spreadsheet models using Microsoft Excel to tackle finance questions such as: risk analysis via simulation and bootstrapping, portfolio analysis, efficient frontier estimation, value at risk, equity and interest rate modelling, and bond credi...