The following courses are intended exclusively for incoming students at the University of Augsburg. Students who are not enrolled as exchange students at the University of Augsburg cannot attend these courses.

Topics:

In the first part of this course, students will get the intuition for understanding risk and return. It also explains the distinction between diversifiable and systematic risk. On this basis, students will get to know models for optimal portfolio choice, capital asset pricing and calculating the cost of capital. Further, students will examine the role of behavioral finance and relate investor behavior to the topic of market efficiency and alternative models of risk and return. In the second part of this course, students will learn how a firm should raise the funds it needs to undertake its investments and the firm's resulting capital structure. Students will focus on examining how the choice of capital structure affects the value of the firm in the perfect world and with frictions such as taxes and agency issues. Finally, students will learn to determine the optimal payout policy. After the course, students will be able to evaluate the risks and costs associated with a firm's business and determine the firm's optimal capital structure.

Application 

Please register for the course via Digicampus by 06.04.2021

Course Organization

The course is planned in an asynchronous format with an opportunity for questions during question and answer sessions.

Literature

The lecture is based on the following textbook:

• Jonathan Berk & Peter DeMarzo (2010): Corporate Finance, global ed. of 2nd revised ed., Pearson Education.

We strongly recommend students to make sure that they have access to this book throughout the whole lecture. Several copies are available at the university library.

Examination

The final examination of this course is a written exam of 90 minutes. As well as the course, the exam is completely in English. Students may use a calculator during the exam which may not be programmable.

Lecturers