Beginning with a clear understanding of the role of efficient markets and the determination of prices for risky securities, courses cover topics including portfolio management, risk management, financial engineering, international finance and the management of financial institutions. This sequence prepares students for careers as security analysts, portfolio managers, or as managers in investment companies, banks, insurance firms, brokerage houses or pension funds. The economics of organization is a rapidly growing field that applies economic theory to decision-making within firms, public agencies, and other organizations. Topics include vertical integration and outsourcing, centralization and decentralization, teams decision-making, performance benchmarking, diversification, and corporate control. Courses in the sequence also explore the legal and institutional environments of business, including antitrust and regulatory policy.
Career opportunities exist in corporations and public agencies.
These courses expose students to a variety of legal topics, including current issues particularly relevant to the manager, issues related to how businesses and financial institutions interrelate, and issues arising from business transactions conducted in an international setting. Some courses also provide opportunities to enhance fundamentally important skills, such as negotiation and communication techniques. The real estate analysis sequence is designed to improve an individual's ability to make real estate acquisition, management and disposition decisions. Topics in these broad areas include cash flow analysis, the role of real estate in increasing shareholder value, site selection, financing alternatives, control and disposition, negotiations, mortgage financing, mortgage securitization, valuation techniques and problems, and computer methods of valuation. The Risk Management and Insurance sequence provides the student with a framework for understanding the management of risk by businesses.