The course aims to provide students with solid theoretical frameworks in asset pricing, corporate finance, and other fields of finance. For asset pricing, the concepts of risk and return, and state prices will be introduced as a stepping stone towards the discussions of more advanced topics including the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), the Arbitrage Pricing Theory (APT), and other more recent asset pricing models. For corporate finance, agency problems are analyzed in capital investments, securities offerings, and capital structure decisions. Other topics in finance such as banking and option pricing may also be covered on an optional basis. Besides the theoretical frameworks, recent developments in empirical asset pricing and empirical corporate finance will also be covered with an extensive use of academic research papers.

To provide students with solid theoretical frameworks in asset pricing and other fields of finance.