Financial Economics Certificate Courses

The Financial Economics Certificate curriculum consists of four courses, as detailed below.

Students must take the Principles of Finance course first, during Fall Quarter. They may take subsequent courses in any order.

KELLG_FE 310-0: Principles of Finance
Instructor: Snehal Banerjee
This foundation course, taken by all students during Fall Quarter, provides an overview of financial principles. Students will learn about the impact of time and uncertainty on value; discounted cash flows; equity and debt valuation; the term structure of interest rates; portfolio theory; asset pricing; and efficient market theory. The course also explores firms’ financing decisions, including capital budgeting, capital structure and payout policy. (This course is also featured in the Managerial Analytics Certificate program.) Syllabus

KELLG_FE 312-0: Investments
Instructor: Dimitris Papanikolaou
This course covers key investment concepts from the perspective of a portfolio manager. Students will learn about passive and active investment strategies for large portfolios and, in particular, risk management issues. Other important topics — such as value at risk, the use of financial derivatives and performance evaluation — are introduced through several applications. Syllabus

KELLG_FE 314-0: Derivatives
Instructor: Viktor Todorov
This course focuses on the use and pricing of forwards, futures, swaps and options. Strategies for speculation and risk management, no-arbitrage pricing for forward contracts, the binomial and Black-Scholes option pricing models and applications of pricing models in other contexts are discussed in depth. Syllabus

KELLG_FE 316-0: Topics in Financial Economics: International Finance
Instructor: Torben Anderson
Each year, this course changes topics to better reflect the current nature of the industry. This year, the course will focus on international finance and introduce the necessary concepts for international financial management, including the international financial instruments, markets, and institutions. Students will learn about the foreign exchange market, determination of interest rates, and the nature of foreign exchange risk. Other topics are foreign exchange derivatives, evaluation of foreign projects and the impact of macroeconomic policy. Risk management is stressed throughout the course. Syllabus

Related Courses
Interested students may consider taking these complementary courses at Northwestern University:
BUS INST 260-0: Accounting and Business Finance
ECON 311-0: Macroeconomics
ECON 349-0: Industrial Economics
ECON 380-1, 2: Introduction to Mathematical Economics
ECON 331-0: Economics of Risk and Uncertainty