Advanced Corporate Finance
CBS PhD School
Prerequisites
Participants are assumed to have a broad knowledge of basic Corporate Finance and some familiarity with derivatives, portfolio theory, utility functions, basic statistics and probability theory, optimization problems, and vectors and matrices.
Aim
To provide participants with a firm and rigorous understanding of corporate finance theory. The course covers fundamental concepts, relations, and models, but also outlines recent theory developments. Both static and dynamic models are considered.
Course content
The course will, among other topics, cover classical Modigliani-Miller propositions, agency conflicts, signaling models, taxes, payout policy, and dynamic capital structure models.
Teaching style
44 lectures including discussions of exercises and student presentations. The lectures will mainly be based on research papers.
The exercises and student presentations include the following elements:
- At least five written individual assignments to be handed in. Solutions are presented and discussed by students in the exercise sessions together with additional exercises.
- Individual student presentations of core papers. Allow 30 minutes plus questions and discussion. Each student must present at least once.
Students must pass the written assignments and the presentations before they are allowed to take the final exam.
Readings
The lectures will mainly be based on research papers. Some parts will be based on chapters from Tirole (2006). In some cases, it may be convenient to consult a textbook such as Berk and deMarzo (2019) – or a newer version of the textbook. All material on the reading list below will be handed out electronically except the background and supplementary readings.
Exam
The course ends with a final oral exam. The student draws a paper/topic from the curriculum. The student then has 20 minutes to prepare an oral presentation of the paper/topic on the white/blackboard. The examination lasts 20 minutes including the time the examiners need to determine the grade and communicate it to the student. The examination begins with the student giving the prepared presentation in front of the examiners for 10-15 minutes, possibly interrupted by clarifying questions by the examiners. Towards the end of the exam, the examiners will normally have supplementary questions related to other papers/topics from the curriculum.
Time and place
The lectures will take place in 11 sessions:
|
Session, Date, time and place |
Topic |
Faculty |
|
1. Monday Oct. 21, 13:00-16:15 SP D4.20 |
Classical capital structure theory I |
Carsten Sørensen |
|
2. Monday Oct. 28, 13:00-16:15 SP D4 (Augustinusfonden) |
Classical capital structure theory II |
Carsten Sørensen |
|
3. Thursday Nov. 7, 9:00-12:15 SP D4.39 |
Agency problems and asymmetric information I |
Carsten Sørensen |
|
4. Monday Nov. 11, 13:00-16:15 SP D4.20 |
Agency problems and asymmetric information II |
Carsten Sørensen |
|
5. Monday Nov. 18, 13:00-16:15 SP D4.20 |
Payout policy |
Carsten Sørensen |
|
6. Thursday Nov. 21, 13:00-16:15 SP D4.20 |
Analyzing capital structure using the Merton model |
David Lando |
|
7. Tuesday Nov. 26, 13:00-16:15 in SP D4.20 |
Bank capital structure and capital regulation |
David Lando |
|
8. Tuesday Dec. 3, 13:00-16:15 SP D4.20 |
Securitization |
David Lando |
|
9. Thursday Dec. 5, 13:00-16:15 SP D4.20 |
Dyn. cap. structure models (one layer of debt) and real options |
Kristian Miltersen |
|
10. Tuesday Dec. 10, 13:00-16:15 SP D4.20 |
Dynamic capital structure models (multiple layers of debt I) |
Kristian Miltersen |
|
11. Tuesday Dec. 17, 13:00-16:15 SP D4.20 |
Dynamic capital structure models (multiple layers of debt II) |
Kristian Miltersen
|
For reading list and registration please see CBS' website.