GRA 6546 Financial Institutions and Crises
GRA 6546 Financial Institutions and Crises
This course seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of international credit markets and some of the important crises that have occurred in the last century (esp. 1930s and the 2008 financial crisis). It covers the financial instrument and institutions that exist and operate in credit markets, with a special emphasis on the role of banks, but also considers other financial institutions such as mutual funds, hedge funds, and government sponsored entities. Credit provision in the form of bank lending, securitization and structured financial products such as credit derivatives and CDOs will be studied. The role of government subsidies and regulations, and how these may impact market participants incentives and behaviour will also be adressed.
The course contains a mix of theory, institutional aspects and case studies of actual events.
- To get an overview of credit markets and the financial institutions operating in credit markets.
- To understand how the asymmetric information in credit market make these markets different from other markets and gives rise to moral hazard and adverse selection problems.
- To learn about sources of financial crises.
- To understand the motivation for financial regulation and the development of sustainable policies that address fundamental frictions in financial markets.
- Ability to identify concrete situations of adverse selection or moral hazard.
- Ability to analyse and discuss in a structured and "precise" manner.
- Familiarity with institutional characteristics of international credit markets and financial institutions.
- Familiarity with the economics of asymmetric information.
(Details may vary from year to year)
- Credit markets and asymmetric information
- Banks and other financial intermediaries
- Securitization and credit derivatives
- Government subsidies and regulations
- Major financial crises (recent and historical)
- Case study(ies)
1. Lectures with built-in class discussions.
2. Hand-in group work of cases on financial crisis and regulation.
3. Pursuant general class discussion of the cases.
4. Guest lecture (e.g., financial regulator or industry)
Please note that while attendance is not compulsory in all courses, it is the student’s own responsibility to obtain any information provided in class.
This is a course with continuous assessment (several exam components) and one final exam code. Each exam component is graded by using points on a scale from 0-100. The components will be weighted together according to the information in the course description in order to calculate the final letter grade for the examination code (course). Students who fail to participate in one/some/all exam elements will get a lower grade or may fail the course. You will find detailed information about the point system and the cut off points with reference to the letter grades when the course starts.
At resit, all exam components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course.
All courses in the Masters programme will assume that students have fulfilled the admission requirements for the programme. In addition, courses in second, third and/or fourth semester can have specific prerequisites and will assume that students have followed normal study progression. For double degree and exchange students, please note that equivalent courses are accepted.
Covid-19
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there may be deviations in teaching and learning activities as well as exams, compared with what is described in this course description.
| Assessments |
|---|
Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Written submission Weight: 20 Grouping: Group (1 - 5) Duration: 2 Week(s) Comment: Case 1 Exam code: GRA65461 Grading scale: Point scale leading to ECTS letter grade Resit: All components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course |
Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Written submission Weight: 20 Grouping: Group (1 - 5) Duration: 2 Week(s) Comment: Case 2 Exam code: GRA65461 Grading scale: Point scale leading to ECTS letter grade Resit: All components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course |
Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Written submission Invigilation Weight: 60 Grouping: Individual Support materials:
Duration: 3 Hour(s) Comment: Written examination under supervision. Exam code: GRA65461 Grading scale: Point scale leading to ECTS letter grade Resit: All components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course |
A course of 1 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of 26-30 hours. Therefore a course of 6 ECTS credits corresponds to a workload of at least 160 hours.