Course description
Course Details
The taught part of the course is delivered across two terms (autumn and spring). Dissertation work will begin in your third term (summer) and be submitted at the end of 18 months of study.
A variety of teaching methods are used on the programme including lectures, seminars, workshops, structured discussions and self-directed study guided by us.
Course Modules
Core modules
Advanced Financial Theory
Main topics of study: capital markets; consumption and investment; the theory of choice under uncertainty; portfolio theory; equilibrium asset pricing models; futures contracts and markets: theory; efficient capital markets: theory; option pricing theory; capital structure and the cost of capital; dividend policy.
Econometric Modelling in Economics and Finance
Main topics of study: the statistical properties of economic and financial data; least squares regression methods: applications to economics and finance; inference and modelling methods applied to economic and financial data; multivariate approaches to modelling economic and financial variables.
Graduate Research Skills and Professional Development
Guided Study Module
This module is designed so that students may work independently, with guidance on a chosen area of economics and finance, with supervisory support. The module enables the student to plan, implement and evaluation their own independent research, under the guidance of a supervisor. The subject matter of the module will be negotiated with the supervisor and will be relevant to one or more of the major areas of economics and finance.
Dissertation
Elective modules
One module to be taken from:
International Finance
Main topics of study: foreign exchange markets and currency derivatives; exchange rate determination in a floating exchange rates regime: theory and empirical evidence; exchange rate determination in a floating exchange rates regime: theory and empirical evidence; fixed exchange rates, target zones and speculative attacks: theory and empirical evidence.
Money and Banking
Main topics of study: the nature and justification of banking; bank risks; banking regulation; applications of banking economics to derivatives and to international banking; consideration of standard and widely used models of money; application of these models to a variety of monetary questions e.g. inflation, hyperinflation, price surprises, central banking, payments systems, speculative attacks, banks and the government budget constraint; consideration of insight of models to real world episodes.
Accounting and Corporate Governance
Main topics of study: the variation in accounting standards across the major economies and their economic significance; accounting for intangibles; accounting for financial instruments and directors' share options; accounting for comprehensive income; the Cadbury report, the Greenbury report, the Hampel report and the combined code on corporate governance; directors: independence, responsibilities, remuneration; internal control; audit: internal, external, audit committees; independence; shareholders; the role of institutional shareholders; metrics to measure corporate governance.
Security Investment Analysis
Main topics of study: valuation models; overall relevance of financial statements; relevance of specific information sets; investment strategies; securities analysis;
portfolio management and institutional investors;capital market dynamics and information.
Financial Engineering
Main topics of study: risk management with derivatives; introduction to derivatives; valuation of forward and futures contracts; interest rates, swaps; options; the binomial asset pricing model; the black-scholes model; conditional volatility models; value-at-risk and credit risk.
Financial Accounting
Main topics of study: the statement of principles for financial reporting which have been adopted by most accounting standards boards; an analysis of specific international accounting standards in the context of these adopted principles; equity valuation models and their link to financial statement; the Miller-Modigliani sustainable cash flow model;
the Ohlson residual income model; the empirical impact of accounting numbers on equity prices; the anticipation of accounting numbers by stock prices; the conservatism of accounting numbers; predicting future cash flows and earnings with accounting numbers.
Development Finance
Main topics of study: finance-growth relationships: theory and empirical evidence; financial repression: concepts and issues;government deficit, money and inflation; bank-based versus stock market, based financial system: theory and empirical evidence, financial distress, financial crisis and contagion; stock market volatility: concept, measurement and its implication to economic growth.
Special Features
We were awarded a 4A rating by the Economics and Econometrics panel in the 1997-2001 Research Assessment Exercise. Our publications include papers in top American and European journals including American Economic Review, Economic Journal, Journal of Banking and Finance, Economic and Review of Economics and Statistics. We are a vibrant, enthusiastic and highly cosmopolitan discipline, having 25 academic staff with teaching and research interests ranging across mainstream economics and finance. Enrolment in our MSc programmes is about 140 students annually from all over the world; there are also 15 PhD students.
Assessment
A range of assessment methods is employed including, written coursework and examinations, presentations and the dissertation.
Careers
The MRes programme aims to provide you with a detailed insight into the nature of Economics and Finance research and will equip you with a range of research skills to enable you to successfully complete research of this kind. It will most likely produce two kinds of graduates: those students who only intend to complete the MRes programme and those who intend to pursue a PhD after completion of the MRes. The formalisation of research methods training should significantly contribute to the subsequent successful completion of a PhD.
